Reviews by guggmo

I’m at a 4.

Out of the 15 tracks here (yes, that includes interludes), I liked 11 of them, with two of them being just kinda flat (“U Can’t Stop Me” & “Being With U”) & two of them being outright awful (“Yo-Yo” & “Same Old Show”). When this album hits those awful lows, it’s a *SUPER* low low, and one that would drain the energy out of any nightclub you might try to play this album in. It’s not a surprise some of the worst ones here involve TEMU Britney Spears. However, when this album lifts itself from those lows, especially when it’s something as fun as “Red Alert” or something like the excellent “Bingo Bango”, it feels super fun to listen to, with a really nice energy that genuinely feels reminiscent of the club circa 1999. The mixing here does a really good job of emphasizing the bass & drums whilst still giving the occasional vocals / other instruments time to shine. Overall, most of the 57 minutes here should give at least a little energy boost, and I think it’s a fun listen, with or without headphones in.

I know 11/15 is 73%, and that this should probably be more of a 3.5 because of it, but I’m at a flat 4 just because I fuck with this style of music – again, video game influences were flying all throughout my brain here (& perhaps the SiIvaGunner MAGFest rave yesterday played a part in my enjoyment), but I think it genuinely holds up as a competently produced & free-flowing house / electronica album. If the really low lows leave a bad taste (which I wouldn’t blame, given that one of the awful tracks is literally the second one), I can understand a 2 or even a 1. Those awful tracks will probably hold this off from ever being a 5, but I think it caps pretty nicely at a 4, which is where I’m at. If nothing else, it makes for good background music. I dunno if it had to be on the list, but I could certainly hear out a case for it.

I'm at a 3.5 that I'll generously bump up to a 4.

I gave this one a listen in some unusual circumstances; first & foremost, there's a 2008 remix / remaster of the album that significantly shaves it down, so I chose to listen to that mix, eliminating the 4 new tracks added to the 2008 version. I also happened to listen to it as more of a backing soundtrack while I did some studying / reading, since DnB albums have usually fallen under mostly instrumental tones. It surprised me immediately when the first song had vocals, but I still chose to keep it mostly as a backing soundtrack.

It's a pretty good backing soundtrack, honestly. It caught my ear a number of times, distracting me to the point where I got sucked into the energy of some of the tracks & oddly enough, finding more focus in my reading because of it. This album excels in those moments, even if I might just be used to it due to my predisposition towards video game music. There's a handful of tracks that made me REALLY pay closer attention, namely "Share The Fall" & "Beatbox" – the former for its '90s racing game vibes & the latter for doing a mostly acapella DnB track, which is super cool.

I'll fully admit that if I had listened to the original 1997 mix, with much longer tracks & probably painfully long repetition, I probably wouldn't enjoy this as much as I did. I'll also admit that if I had paid closer attention & not just used it as a background album of sorts, I probably would be lower, on account of this not really being "focusing" music. However, the 2008 mix just really worked as a vibes thing, and while I couldn't really tell you the major differences between tracks, I was keen enough to notice the really strong flow between tracks, transitioning in a way that feels like a genuine DJ set, giving this album a lot more character & personality than some of the other pure DnB albums we've gotten.

Hence, it's a 3.5 that I'll generously bump up to a 4, mostly as a vote of confidence for being a great soundtrack, and because it really was just a fun vibe to listen to. I don't think it would ever get up to a 5 on account of just being what it is, but it's still a good time regardless. If you already like VGM or this style of music, you'll enjoy it, and if you don't... yeah, I wouldn't blame a 1 or 2. It's not for everyone. For me, it's a 4, and I liked it. Definitely not "better than OK Computer" in terms of the Mercury Prize though.

I was at a 5, then “Montana Song” punched it all the way up to a 10. My goodness.

I mean, it doesn’t start perfectly. I think it takes a moment to get used to the shifting tempo / pace of “American Gothic”, which isn’t the best way to start an album, but once you settle into this album’s more cinematic / Broadway-esque tones, that push & pull feels extremely dynamic, and give each track way more of a gravitas than initially expected. “Love’s Enough” might’ve been the more trusty opener, given that it has a sort of Nick Drake vibe to the instrumental, & it just feels lovely overall. If this album had started with “Love’s Enough”, I think it’d have much higher than a 2.48 on the site.

The only real minor misstep here is “Ballad of the Ship of State” – not that it’s a bad track, but it’s the most lyrically confusing to me, just in the way its structured. Instrumentally, it feels really bombastic in a striking way, but I couldn’t exactly piece together the plot here – obviously there’s some abandoned soldiers (presumably for World War II or the Korean War), and people who stumble upon them, but I don’t know if they went with the people who found them, if they took over their ship to leave them to the same fate, or ultimately decided to stay where they were since their country had already abandoned them in their minds to begin with. If the track’s plot were as clear as the 8 tracks that follow it, it would be even better than it already is.

After that, the album just glides brilliantly. It feels like a mix of Nick Cave, Scott Walker, & Todd Rundgren, with aspects of who he inspired (Elvis Costello, Elton John, Phil Collins, maybe a few more) popping up along the way. “One Night Stand” is somber, yet plain, and it just feels really nice. “Oh, California!” has a sort of Toy Story vibe to it, with a kind of whimsy that just gives off a happy & bright energy, like the sun he keeps praising in the track. “Another Friday Night” just feels like a working class anthem, with a sort of plucky underdog vibe to it that feels like a Broadway track. The lift of the instrumental, along with the “Rocket Man” vibes around the 2:30 mark just struck me really nicely.

“Family Band” feels really relatable – I’ve grown out of faith to a degree, but sometimes hearing the gospel music I grew up on brings back a calming vibe, and this track just spells that out in a way that clicked for me. “Midnight Carousel” is intimidating in the best way, with the religious people around the protagonist scolding her for chasing after this one true love. The ambiguity of the relationship itself gives the whole track a super captivating vibe, and whether or not she’s truly been seduced by the devil (or the “man in red”, whoever he is), she’s clearly pleased & satisfied either way.

“Waiting for the Moving Van” is beautiful. The way the lyricism slowly reveals the nature of his homelife, his relationship with his kids, and the pain of a 10-year marriage falling apart, all whilst being forced to focus on the immediacy of his move, while the somber piano tries to occasionally lift itself up… it feels like a Pixar track, in the best way. It just struck me really nicely, since it felt so vivid & lived in. “Blues for Billy Whitecloud” is a fun blues track, with the crazy twist of Billy building a fucking bomb & destroying his school at the end. I can’t blame him, given how they treated him.

“Montana Song” could be a play unto itself, and it’s the reason this album is getting a bump up all the way to a 10. It’s a track all about finding those connections in person, with the protagonist traveling to Montana just to find his grandparents’ graves, getting mentally swept away to the past to see how they lived, with the tragedy of his grandpa’s sons just leaving him & his family farm behind for the hustle & bustle of city life in the early 20th century. He died practically alone, with almost nothing. The little details of the track make it feel so incredibly lived in, especially the detail of a presumed daughter who stayed being the one to write out the note of the grandpa’s death. My dad was a very big believer in ancestry, finding one's roots, & trying to get as good of a feel for the past as he possibly could, and while those records still exist on the computer I’m using to type this, they’re buried under passwords I don’t know & software that’s incompatible with modern operating systems. In a way, I wish I could be in touch with my ancestry as this song is, and the cinematic / Broadway-esque tones of it just clicked wonderfully for me. I think it uses all of its 10 minutes as effectively as possible, and it’s a great capper to an 8-track stretch that elevates this album all the way up to a 10 for me.

It is an undiscovered classic, and while I understand that the shakier start to this album makes it easier to give up on it, seeing it through & truly *feeling* these tracks as they are reveals something deeply enriching. I think it’s a fantastic discovery, proving that even 740 albums in, there’s some superb diamonds left to find. It’s not going to click this nicely for everyone, but for it to have clicked with so few people that this only has a 2.48 on the site is utterly ridiculous to me. It’s at least a 3, bare minimum, and for me, I simply have to give this a 10. It’s just that good.

I’m at a 5.

Between the two 1978 post-punk albums we’ve gotten on back to back days, I can safely give this one the nod. This is a really good album. I can’t say I’ve heard of Magazine before this, but some of their members went on to do big stuff with other bands (namely Siouxsie & The Banshees and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds), so their talent level combined here makes for a pretty cool set of tracks, especially for 1978. Straight out of the gate with the buzzy & bassy intro of “Definitive Gaze”, the album never really hits a lull point instrumentally, managing to mix together some Kraftwerk-y synth use, some Bowie-esque guitar work, a bit of prog influence & just a touch of grunge / metal to come, for an eclectic mix of styles that holds up really nicely. It’s hard to fully classify this as post-punk, but whatever it is, I liked it a lot.

Lyrically, I think this album tends to be pretty strong; there’s a few times where the metaphors / intentions feel really loose, but parsing them feels like it’s meant as a satisfying bonus. Truthfully, you can get away with ignoring the lyrics on this album, save for whatever manages to catch your ear, which is usually pretty intentional. I don’t want to type a bunch of paragraphs about what I think each track means, but I do want to specifically point at “The Great Beautician in the Sky” – I think the idea of God as a beautician, pampering people with makeup (religion) as a sort of society-approving temptation is a really fascinating bit of imagery. The song doesn’t really spell that out, but that’s what I took it as.

Vocally, while I do think it takes a bit of time to get used to the slightly nasally tones of Howard Devoto, once you settle in, his vocals do end up sounding alright, especially by the back half of the album. It is still the weakest aspect here, but it’s not THAT bad. There are points where he overdoes some of the scratchier / aggressive tones, but that’s just a quirk to get used to. If nothing else, he’s usually got the right mood in his voice to get the emotions of the track across. I know vocal control to indicate tone should be second nature, but there’s a lot of post-punk albums we’ve gotten where the vocalists just feel sort of samey throughout, so even a bit of exaggerated emotion is better than sticking to a default setting.

Ultimately, I think they all blend together well. The witty songwriting covers for some of the odd vocal moments, and when the songwriting itself feels a bit too clever or confusing, the instrumental energy of the album more than covers for that. It’s a super satisfying 41 minutes if you just kinda loosen up & let yourself get into it, with a lot of variety across the board. After you get past the slightly long outro of “Burst”, the album really opens itself up, with the final 4 tracks being my favorite ones here. I love an album that feels bigger the longer it goes, & this fits the bill nicely. Hence, a 5, and a pretty strong 5 at that. It certainly feels like a seminal post-punk album, and I’m glad it’s on the list.

I’m at a 3.5 that I wish I could leave there, but I think I’m going to bump this down to a 3. For the site though, I'll give it a 4.

I feel a little bad, honestly. I don’t think I gave “Metal Box” a very fair shake at all. It was the 15th album we got, my brain wasn’t very inclined to deal with an album that had a 2.42 rating, and I wasn’t even really sure I wanted to commit to doing the entire list. My original goal was just to listen to an album every day in 2024, and I was willing to skip albums on the list to fulfill my quota for THAT goal. I think I initially skipped Metal Box, in terms of a focused listen, only giving it a half-hearted shot as background noise that I truly don’t remember anything of. By all accounts, I need to go back & truly listen to it, because I only wrote 8 words the first time around: “i liked it better when he wasn’t singing”, before slapping it with a 2 & moving on.

I couldn’t even be fucking bothered to realize that “he” is Johnny fucking Rotten, & Public Image Ltd. is his post-Sex Pistols project, now going under his real name of John Lydon. Given the 723 albums we’ve gotten since then, and my own slow appreciation for post-punk, shoegaze, post-rock, or whatever multitudes of genres & artists we’ve since gotten that fall into the same metal box as this album, I figured I would probably appreciate this a little more, and I did. When this album is at its best, it’s rolling in a way that if nothing else, creates a cool atmosphere. It’s just not the best at consistently hitting a peak, and that slightly bumpy roller coaster is most of the reason that I’m stuck at a 3.5.

“Theme” is pretty cool, honestly. It feels like an attempt to do what shoegaze bands of the ‘80s would come to truly realize, but with the technology of 1978 not really allowing for atmospheric sound design in that overblown way, it feels like more of a novelty. It’s like Nine Inch Nails without any pretense lyrically (just straight up saying “I wish I could die”), and it feels like the wiggly warbly awkward guitar is a compromise for being unable to capture texture in that way. I thought it was cool, and somehow, the 9 minutes didn’t bother me.

“Religion I” is nice – it’s just a good poem about the woes of religion. It’s when you get to “Religion II” and its awkward panning / mix that the album hits its first big snag. I didn’t hate “Religion II”, but it’s incessant in a way that just feels like a rehash with awkward drums & bass put behind it. It’s not very compelling or super pleasing, plus it’s just melodically inconsistent. An unnecessary track.

“Annalisa” is good, though. It’s based on a real girl who suffered psychological torture due to undergoing intense exorcism rituals, eventually being practically starved & paralyzed to death. As a song, it’s a bit padded in the runtime, with the cool ending of the “demon” inside of her breaking the instrumental down being undermined by that length. If it had shaved about a minute or so in the middle, it would’ve flowed really well, but it’s still a good track regardless.

“Public Image” is just a really good release of frustration about the Sex Pistols. The instrumental feels like a mid-80s track, the vocals are good, & the lyricism is damning in a good way. It’s the most played track on the album for a reason, and it’s probably the best one here.

“Low Life” is another diss, seemingly aimed at the lead manager for the Sex Pistols, Malcolm McLaren. I think the higher pitch of the track is intentional, to place him higher than the person he’s talking about, and that’s an example of good witty production. It’s a little bit long for what it is, given the repetition in the vocals / lyrics, but overall, the track works.

“Attack” is fine – it’s likely a frustration being released over the public outcry following “God Save The Queen” back on “Never Mind The Bollocks”, but as an actual track, I think the sense of progression doesn’t feel as good as it could, with the track teasing a faster percussive tone that never comes to fruition. I liked it, but it needs a bit more work to make that progression feel better.

“Fodderstompf” is… well, it’s not useless, at least not for the first 3 minutes or so. The experimental nature of the instrumental, bringing in a little bit of an electronica / Daft Punk vibe is pretty cool for 1978, and it does feel like it could still be sampled today. The pussyfooting around with a goofy admission that it’s a track made to pad out the album, along with the sort of goofy deranged grandma voice that John does, feels kinda charming for the first 3 minutes. And then it just keeps fucking going. At nearly 8 minutes, it feels like watching a comedy act lose its novelty in real time, and it just leaves a really sour note to close out the album. If it had stopped after the first 3, I’d probably be willing to bump this up to a 4, just for ending a good comedic note, but it’s just incessant by the end. It doesn’t need to be 8 minutes.

With all of the little issues combined & the 2 bigger snags of “Religion II” & “Fodderstompf”, I just feel like I have to bump this down from a 3.5 to a 3. Make no mistake, though; I did enjoy this one. If those two tracks weren’t there (or just mixed better / trimmed down), I’d easily be at a 4. This doesn’t quite get up to the range of a 5, but it’s a genuinely enjoyable album in its nicest moments. All that said, I don’t think this is an album so bad that it deserves a 2.43 on the site, & I probably need to give “Metal Box” a fair relisten, with my tastes growing much more since then. Despite my belief that this is a 3.5 bumped down to a 3, I want to give it a 4 on the site, just as a vote of confidence & as a bit of atonement for only giving “Metal Box” a 2 despite barely engaging with it. I think it’s earned that.

In closing, I liked it better when he sang this time. Good job, John.

I’m at a 5, if not a little higher.

This is the only Nina Simone album on the list, which feels like a real shame, because I absolutely adored this. Yes, it’s a little bit one-note in terms of most of the tracks being sad love songs with a slightly clingy atmosphere to them, but Nina Simone’s voice shines as brightly as the sun here. I can’t remember the last time someone’s vocals struck me so nicely; the closest analog I have is Aretha Franklin, and that’s really high praise.

Her vocals are melded beautifully by the instrumentals here, ranging from orchestral backing, to intimate nightclub vibes, & occasionally, nothing more than a piano to texture her voice further. Every track has the right tone & mood to it, and when they work in a perfect harmony, like on “What More Can I Say” or “Wild is the Wind”, it feels otherworldly. As far as the lyrics go, Nina Simone pulls about every ounce of emotion she can get out of them; occasionally, she overdoes the vibrato on her held notes in a way that feels a little overdramatic, but those moments are quickly bandaged by some glittery piano or string work. There’s not a single “bad” moment here.

The only reason I’m not at a full 10 here is because I don’t think the tracks fully flow together as an album experience; there are some tracks where their fadeouts feel unsatisfying after nailing it 90% of the way, which wouldn’t stick out as much if not for the other tracks with big flourishing finishes nailing them with a surgical precision. I felt really cheated by the last track having a fadeout; if it were me, I would’ve swapped the last two, since “If I Should Lose You” just felt really lovely to my ears, and it would’ve been a great bookend to the opening track.

That said, it’s still easily a 5, and probably higher. It’s 39 minutes you need to hear before you die, with its influence feeling immeasurable. I felt like I heard the entire future of female-led soul music come to fruition while listening to this album, and the tree of influences spreading from that has to be huge. There’s moments where Nina Simone somehow sounds like both Elvis Presley, Whitney Houston & Amy Winehouse at the same time, and I have no idea how the hell she did it. It’s really a shame this is her only album here, because it feels like she needs at least one more. If this is the best one though, I’m certainly glad to have heard it before I died. A super easy 5.

I’m at a 5.

I think it's a really good follow-up to "You're Living All Over Me", which was already a pretty damn good album. I also think it’s a concept album. It’s certainly loose, and there’s not really characters by name or anything, but these all feel connected, telling a story about someone slowly losing a grip on their friendships, relationship, & reality until a total breakdown.

“Freak Scene” is about wanting a relationship, but just knowing it won’t work based on either an established friendship or an established reputation. It’s shockingly honest in its last verse, and I think the texturing of the guitar sets the instrumental tone for the album well. The nonchalant vocals to start the entire album here only make the vocals in the last track punch that much harder.

“No Bones” is just that – it’s the protagonist’s spinelessness coming through, with his inability to establish that relationship he really wants. The guitar here does a good job of showing that mental struggle, even if it overstates its point by going way too fucking loud. It bounced off of me on a first pass, but it does thematically fit with the album.

“They Always Come” is a little bit hard to parse, but I think it’s about a deeper, darker, more sinister self that comes out whenever the influence of alcohol comes to roost. The lines about “drying for it” & how a “mound of smack” won’t satiate something, along with “all the steps taken to hide me”... it sure reads like someone whose demons will fully consume them if allowed to come out. They sure seem like they’re out by the end of the album; they always come. The guitar work here does a really good job of showing the emotional push / pull.

“Yeah We Know” feels like it’s an effort to really make that relationship from earlier stick, given the line “got to find a way to mend”, whilst acknowledging that the longer it goes unreciprocated, the more those demons might come out, with lines like “Feel the skin begin to scar / Can't really pull it together / About to crack”. Instrumentally though, it’s just kind of a vibe.

“Let It Ride” strikes me as an attempt to get back in the good graces of someone after a lot of beef between them, asking them to let it slide & to let their friendship ride. Whether or not it’s about the primary romantic relationship at hand here or another friendship, I can’t say, but it’s a good conflicting emotion to showcase on a track. I’m not sure if it succeeded or not, but that ambiguity in the air lends itself to a sort of paranoia that helps the unhinged spiral continue. Instrumentally, I think it just sounded really good.

“Pond Song” feels like the full & proper rejection of the romantic relationship. He’s insistent about giving it “my last crack”, asking her to jump on the wave, and all of her hesitations about it lead him to realize her feelings are way more complex. When he says “needs a way to keep it simple”, he decides he has to turn down the relationship himself, rejecting that last “reach in”. The percussion gives the track a nice indie tone, and one that feels a little ahead of pace for 1988.

“Budge” is a drug song. They’re doing weed & speed and everything else; whether or not the two people in the track are him & the friend on “Let It Ride” or the “other self” from “They Always Come” is irrelevant – he’s doing drugs again. It’s only a matter of time. The stoner-y vibe to the vocals & the instrumental energy gives a weird sort of Malcolm in the Middle vibe that I just vibed with.

“The Post” is an alcohol song. He’s drinking again. He eyed it (the bottle), he dried it, he untied it, he chilled it, he spilled it, he refilled it, he paced around, he traced it (redid his drink), & he erased it (threw away the bottle). They always come. The overblown guitar really gives off a nice sense of the depression present at this point.

“Don’t” is visceral. It’s very discomforting, but in a way that’s super fascinating, with the sound design of the guitars & percussion & the underlying demonic growl in his voice releasing a frustration into the world that not even Trent Reznor was able to reach on “The Downward Spiral”. There’s a point at the 4:30 mark where all the guitars disappear, to just leave him to his own thoughts, before devolving into utter chaos for the finale. I think it works incredibly well. As an album closer, it feels depressing, yet inevitable. They always come.

“Keep The Glove”, however, feels like it could work as an ending all the same. It’s a bonus track, but I choose to interpret it as a dream that comes after the alcoholic events of “Don’t”, one in which the romance he was looking for is still about to end (probably through cheating), but at least he was able to experience it, & asking her to remember him. The last minute being a total cacophony though feels like the dream melting away, & it just feels like a heartbreaking ending. They ALWAYS come.

The thing that elevates this album even higher, at least from what I’ve read, is that these tracks are meant as an allegory for the band’s deteriorating relationship at the time. Dinosaur Jr.’s initial lineup would split apart by their next album, with their bassist, Lou Barlow, leaving the band. If this album is meant to be a sort of therapy session between the group, then it makes the ending tracks of the album hit even harder, knowing that the simple, vital question of “Why don’t you like me?” would stay unanswered.

I understand that my interpretation isn’t definitive, but it feels like a really strong framing device, & there’s certainly at least a loose connection between all of these tracks. I think the floor is a 3 if it just hurts the ears from an instrumental standpoint (entirely understandable), but I’m at a 5 because… I dunno, it just feels like an extremely cohesive album, written & created despite some kind of deep-seated pain, ala Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours”. I might even be higher after writing all of this out, though I don’t think I’d get to a 10. I really enjoyed it, and I’m glad it’s on the list; they certainly shut me up after wondering why they had 2 albums here.

I’m at a 5. Perhaps a bit higher.

Just like “Peace Sells… But Who's Buying?”, that is a total ball of energy, though this time, it feels written with a bit more purpose. A lot of the more demonic energy of that first album is replaced with some political / anti-war sentiment, some aliens, some medieval magic, some drug usage, some ghosts in the basement, some broken hearts, & seemingly a bit of nuclear warfare. The variety of the lyrics here makes for a more engaging album past “really fucking sick guitar / percussion work”, but those are both still here in spades. This album finds a really good balance between lyrics & energy, and it maintains both pretty well to keep it up for the full 40 minutes.

I guess if I have any minor nitpicks, it’s that the flow of the album feels a little off despite the more focused tracks; I’m not saying there had to be transitions or anything, but some tracks really draw out their endings while others just kinda hard stop, & that push/pull feels disconnected at points. My other super small nitpick is that Dave’s vocals feel… weirdly, too noticeable sometimes. I’m not saying he should blend in & have zero presence, but his voice occasionally sticks out when he’s in a higher or lower pitch than normal, and it draws the attention towards him. Sometimes it really helps a track (“Tornado of Souls” comes to mind), & other times, it just sort of took me out of the rhythm for a brief beat or two (notably on the last track).

Overall, there’s not a single miss in the whole 40 minute runtime here, & it’s certainly one of the best thrash metal albums we’ve gotten so far. It’s definitely a 5, if not higher, but I’m not quite at a 10 with it on account of occasionally losing that rhythm / sync. Needless to say though, this could easily get there someday. The acclaim is justified here; this is a very, VERY good album, and its best tracks feel like they’re in a pantheon of sorts. Whatever metal albums we get next have a higher bar to clear after both Megadeth albums we’ve gotten – they’re that good, and I’m very glad they made the list.

I’m at a 4.5 that I think I’ll bump up to a 5, just because I really liked it.

British folk rock, or as some might call it, “not quite the Beatles”, though their DNA is scattered here a little bit, at least in the feel of the instrumentation. These are folk songs, but the extra rock instrumentation gives them a kind of contemporary depth that just feels super nice in the ears. Their additions don’t do anything too crazy in terms of solos or technical stuff, but they enhance the atmosphere in ways that can still build and release tension. It’s super effective, and hearing that instrumentation blended with traditional stuff like the fiddle or violin makes this album feel like it’s from out of time, in a cool way.

Sandy Denny has a lovely voice, occasionally reminiscent of Emmylou Harris; she really does glide on a lot of these tracks. The only thing I can knock her on is some occasionally confusing vocal structures (namely on “Tam Lin”), but even then, that might just be a carryover from how these songs were performed. Sandy Denny, by the way, is featured on Led Zeppelin IV’s “The Battle of Evermore” – that’s a track perfectly suited for her talents, given a similarity in styles, and she gets to showcase those talents across a whole album here, which is really nice.

The only reason I’m at a 4.5 as opposed to a flat 5 is just because “Farewell, Farewell” didn’t really grab me lyrically & “Tam Lin” feels a little bit disjointed in terms of blending its storytelling, instrumentation & vocals, compared to how smoothly the other 7 tracks do it. Past that though, it’s music that speaks for itself. I think the floor here is a 3, and it’s one I’d understand, especially if the slower storytelling style doesn’t feel as gripping, or if the extra instrumental flair feels like it’s trying to dress up some perceived mediocrity on these traditional songs. I thought it was enjoyable enough to sit at a 4.5, and I think it’s just aligned enough with my tastes to bump it up to a 5 – it could go back down to a 4 if these tracks don’t click as nicely on more casual listens, but for now, I feel pretty safe bumping it up. I’m glad it’s on the list.

I’m at a 5.

It’s not the most “structured” David Bowie album. There’s definitely some spots around the middle where the album feels disconnected from its most intimate moments, especially with two of the tracks here being re-recordings from 2014 & with “Girl Loves Me” being confoundingly cryptic with the Clockwork Orange references, but… none of that matters.

David Bowie died roughly 10 years ago. I remember hearing about it, but I never had a deeper sense of his music or a connection to it. I do, however, vividly remember the image of Bowie, blindfolded, with two little dots where his eyes should be. I never watched the full music video for the title track, and even now after listening, I just think it would muddle my own perception of what I think it means. It is, however, a testament to David Bowie’s flair for the dramatic that even I, a decade ago, who had never heard anything outside of his monster hits, could still be so struck by something so visually simple. In a way, that’s David Bowie’s legacy. He was always there, making art. You just had to find him first. Those who found him at his earliest got the honor of experiencing it in real time, and those who found him at his latest would have struck the gold that everyone else had known about.

This album is that last vein of gold. In its most rocking moments, it’s a triumphant example of the ongoing shattering of boundaries that everyone was experiencing in the 2010s. Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp A Butterfly” was apparently a big influence here, in terms of expanding the soundscapes of any given genre to mold it into whatever an artist intends it to be. I can certainly hear it. At its most honest, it’s a snapshot of facing mortality with the gravitas it deserves. You can’t write tracks like “★” or “Lazarus” or “Dollar Days” or “I Can’t Give Everything Away” without that fear of limited time creeping into your mind. Despite that fear, it all just feels like quintessential David Bowie, with that gravitas allowing for insights that other people might never think of. When terminal illness can be boiled down to just a candle going out & when Heaven becomes nothing more than a place for you to lose your cell phone, one has to ask if David Bowie truly feared death, or if he simply feared that death would represent the inability for people to continually find him.

I know this: I’m glad I found him. If anything, David Bowie’s legacy is secured by this album, at least for a long while. One day, that Blackstar will inevitably fade out. There will be no artists influenced by his work, no musicians to carry on the torch with the instructions that he left behind on the title track. The world may just be gangstars, filmstars, popstars, marvel stars, porn stars & wandering stars. However, it’s been 10 years, and I don’t see that Blackstar fading anytime soon. David Bowie’s influence may last as long as the sun itself, and I pray that’s the world we end up in.

This is a very easy 5 for me; even when the tracks don’t make any sense, or even if they feel disconnected from the others, the musicianship that’s here is just too mesmerizingly fun to ignore. As a coda to a career, “I Can’t Give Everything Away” is an unbelievably strong closing track, and I can’t think of any other musician that could stare death in its eyes with something so poppy. Had David Bowie lived on, maybe we’d all just see this as an artsy concept album about the life & death of some star in space; a metaphor for a retirement that wouldn’t have come for a while longer. His death, however, is inextricably linked to this album, and I think it’s all the more potent because of it. It’s one hell of a way to go out. Rest in peace, David.

I’m at a 4.5 that I’ll easily bump up to a 5.

Yes, it’s because “Hats Off to (Roy) Harper” is sort of a weirdly unsatisfying closing track, but the other 40 minutes here range from really good to fucking incredible (with “Since I’ve Been Loving You” hitting the “fucking incredible” side of the scale). It’s a little different from Led Zeppelin I, II, and IV, but the 596 albums we’ve gotten since our last Led Zeppelin album have prepared me for those differences. There’s just more of a folksy lean here, really. The percussion has scaled itself down a bit (save for “Since I’ve Been Loving You” going nutty), but everything else is pretty intact, just with more intention to it. Robert Plant’s vocals carry the emotion of the lyrics pretty well, focused less on energetic flash & more of the substance he’d really flesh out by Led Zeppelin IV. The guitar work here is just as good as ever; I can’t say there’s a super killer guitar solo here, but the consistency of the energy is infectious. The bass in particular gives these tracks a good funky rhythm, & the organ/synth work lifts each track up just a little bit more.

There are a few times where the direction of each track feels a little muddled with the instrumentation; I think “Friends” has a weirdly eerie guitar despite the positive tone, the slight cynicism of “Celebration Day” feels unnoticed, the outro to “Gallows Pole” feels a little long, & obviously “Hats Off to (Roy) Harper” is doing… whatever the hell it’s doing. I think if it weren’t so weirdly panned, with a little more presence in the drums, I might like it more. These are all nitpicky though – I think this whole album, while slightly different from the rest of their initial tetralogy, has held up pretty well in the 55 years since. A track like “Bron-Y-Aur Stomp” reminds me a lot of Cage the Elephant & other bands from the late 2000s/early 2010s, which tells me they were thinking forwardly with this album as an attempt to expand their soundscape. I’d say it didn’t play well with the critics of the era, but history has been kind to a lot of these tracks, especially “Immigrant Song”, which has endured the entire time.

Hence, a very easy bump up to a 5. Not a dazzling 10, but a very good album regardless. The only Led Zeppelin album we have left on the list is “Physical Graffiti”, which is the worst rated Led Zeppelin album on the site with a… 3.91. I’m looking forward to it. As far as this one goes, it’s a 4.5 bumped up to a 5, & a good way to start the final year of the randomizer with; it’s a terrifying reminder that I’ve been doing this shit for 2 years now. Jeez.

I’m at a 5.

That felt a bit ahead of schedule for 1979, at least in terms of the instrumental work; really strong panning for everything to give it some depth, especially in the percussion & bass. The bass is *so* good here. The guitar work feels like it’s from 2002 as opposed to ‘79, which is to say that this plays kinda like the garage revival of that time, with elements of early ‘90s grunge pulled in along the way. Vocally, there’s just a nice flow to everything, even if the vocals themselves don’t quite find a flow – it’s a very weird paradox, but somehow, everything falls into place in a pleasing way, even if it takes a bit to get there.

The soundscape dominates a lot of the album, and just from a technical standpoint, this is enjoyable enough to just listen to, with the lyrics feeling kinda secondary. I would argue that the lyrics are honestly just as important, or at the very least, helpful to getting the point of the album. Everything here is framed under the lens of life as a marketplace, whether it’s love, sex, jobs, or time itself. Even the news is framed with a sort of cynicism; class warfare is entertainment & political assassinations are fodder for selling ad space. Gang of Four are firm on their anti-capitalism views & other political stances on this album, and honestly, I think they make their case pretty well. The lyrics don’t need to be fully understood to enjoy this album, but I think leaving this album without at least gathering some kind of small political take means you didn’t really soak it in to the extent that you could.

Kurt Cobain listed this as one of his 50 favorite albums, and I can totally hear that influence throughout. Seriously, the guitar work here, for as awkward as it gets at points (especially on “At Home He’s A Tourist”, though I understand the intentional disconnect there), is really well done for the era. Even past the guitar work, there’s just a lot of clear production / compositional choices that give the instrumentals as much of a voice as Jon King & Andy Gill. Other post-punk bands of the era weren’t doing this stuff. I’m not sure I’d classify this as a post-punk album – this feels way closer to grunge with a slight funk lean, with aspects of rock music throughout that other bands would refine throughout the 1980s & beyond to come. There are points here where this album feels as much like R.E.M. as it does RHCP, Arcade Fire or Nirvana, and that’s just a testament to being this far ahead of the curve.

Ultimately, the only real knocks I have on the entire thing are that “I Found That Essence Rare” has a little less bite than the other tracks & that “5.45” probably should’ve closed out over “Love Like Anthrax”. Regardless of that, it’s a super enjoyable album, & I think it deserves all of the critical praise & acclaim it gets. I’m glad it’s on the list, because I probably wouldn’t have come across it. I think it’s a super easy 5, and maybe with time, it could grow a bit higher. Pretty damn good album to end 2025 on.

TL;DR: I’m entertained!

I think I’m at a 5. A slightly muddled & hard to explain 5, but I’ll try to get there.

Everyone has those occasional thoughts that pop into the head for just one moment; some deeper part of the psyche that buries itself 99% of the time, and yet that 1% creeps through to suggest something that feels unlike yourself. This album, to me, is what happens when the 1% tries to influence you more & more; it’s what happens when one's deepest anxieties & unspoken thoughts try to coexist with a carnal feeling of innate desire. PJ Harvey wrote this album after suffering a nervous breakdown, going through a breakup, gaining an eating disorder, and getting effectively kicked out of college. It is a perfect cocktail for those thoughts to creep in, and instead of letting them "win", I think she managed to distill their essence into this album.

These are all written from a feminine perspective; not an explicitly feminist one, but a lot of those themes go hand-in-hand on this album, with those deeper thoughts probably acting as a subliminal hatred of patriarchy & male expectation. Granted, sometimes it’s pretty blatant, given that “Legs” is about her murdering a boyfriend by fully cutting off his legs, but I digress. A lot of the album is rooted in a conflicting desire for both love & revenge, probably inspired by her own relationships of the era. It’s kind of bipolar, in a very understandable way. For as much as she takes pleasure in seeing this pain inflicted to other people, she also seems to reach out and beg for forgiveness. It is hard to reconcile with the idea that one’s attempt at healing might just involve pulling other people down, but it’s captured perfectly here, with those snapshots of regret coming through just as quickly. I can’t say I’ve heard that cocktail of emotions captured so potently in audio form.

The other aspect of desire is explored in other ways than just love; “Missed” is directly about missing out on the fruits that other people find in religion, wondering how a God so big can be so hidden to her eyes. Even the cover of “Highway 61 Revisited”, for as strange as it may seem, has a place here; it’s a track that’s all about seeking approval, whether it’s Abraham seeking it from God, Mack seeking approval to place all his scattered bullshit on the highway, or the family members seeking approval from their parents. Didn’t think I’d get a Bob Dylan song through PJ Harvey’s interpretation, but here we are.

I want to really specifically point at “Man-Size Sextet” & “Man-Size”, which may end up getting away with being the only example of a remix on the main tracklist actually working to the benefit of an album. The “sextet” version has more instrumentation, with an eerier tone to it, as the strings piercing the soundscape bring to mind the shower scene in Psycho. I see it as a representation of multiple voices in the head, blurring the expectations of the night to come in a negative way. The other version forgoes the full sextet to just let one person try to pull off the whole song. There’s an emptiness to it, and one that comes across as more clear, but more desperate, since a single person can’t carry a melody by themselves. The emptiness is really potent, and it shifts the entire mood of the track. It somehow works, and it didn’t leave me mad.

All of the intent aside… how does it sound? You can have a great concept for an album, but if you don’t execute it with the respect it deserves, you end up with something like “Antichrist Superstar”. Thankfully, this album’s high concept doesn’t need intense ambition behind it, or at the very least, PJ Harvey makes it feel effortlessly executed. Her compositions / structures here give a lot of space for her vocal power to breathe, along with giving each instrument a sense of intrusion that makes each track pop that much more. Steve Albini’s production work here is as good as I had hoped it would be; he uses a sense of space & volume for each track that fully grabs the ears every time. Whenever a major drop happens, or a silence washes over, it adds a living atmosphere to each track. In a way, I’m reminded of “The Downward Spiral”, but through the lens of rock bottom angst instead of pure rock bottom depression.

All of my yapping aside, I think it’s an album where you have to hear it & buy into it to grasp what it’s going for. I don’t think it’s one where everyone will grasp that, or feel it in the same way that I did here. I admire the hell out of it though, and I think it deserves all the critical acclaim it gets. There are spots where the execution feels a little anti-album; a few longer outros & intros and some repetitive moments, but for the most part, it’s a 48-minute snapshot of emotions of all kinds captured in a way that I’ve never really heard before. It kept me really captivated, even if it took a bit to get there. I think it’s a 5, and for the last PJ Harvey album we’ll get on the list, I think this is one hell of a way to get rid of her.

Overall, then, for someone who I’d never heard of going into this whole 1001 albums thing, it’s a hell of an impact. I really need to relisten to “Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea”, which I gave a 3.5 bumped down to a 3, but everything else was a 5 or higher. That’s a 4.625+ average, and that speaks to her versatility. I think she’s a damn fine artist, and I certainly need to seek out more of her stuff. Good job, PJ.

I’m at a 5.

I don’t think there’s too much to be said here; it’s lovely folk music arranged with some good guitar melodies & a silky smooth voice coming out of Joan Baez. Sure, it might all blend together if you’re not paying attention, or if you’re not too inclined lyrically, but I think these tracks are pretty straightforward, with maybe “Mary Hamilton” as the only one with a bit more historical context needed to understand the Scottish royalty slant of it all. Even still, I think that track comes across pretty clearly.

Enjoying this album is a matter of how much you like this brand of folk music, and while I understand those who aren’t huge on it, I just think these all tell very nice stories. Joan Baez sounds great, with her held notes & vibrato feeling like an operatic Dolly Parton at times. She knows when to be softer & when to turn up the power in her vocals, and it adds the emotional depth the lyrics need. The instrumentation here occasionally has a bit of a country lean, and since it’s all driven by guitar (with no percussion to be found), I think it’s music in a very pure form. I do think it’s a little long of an album, but for the most part, each track captivated me, so I never felt that length bear down too badly.

All in all, I just happened to really like it. I can’t understand why people might give this a 1; that’s just total rejection of the music, which feels unfounded. The very bottom floor here is a 2 if you’re just bored by the whole thing, which is kinda fair. I’d say the more reasonable floor is a 3. Personally, I’m at a 5 – her voice just stuck with me really nicely, & while that operatic flair does blend a little bit, the delivery of each track & the storytelling present here clicked for me. This is the only Joan Baez album on the list; I don’t know if she’ll show up in any other remaining albums we have as a feature, but it would be nice if she did. As far as this one goes, it’s just a nice simple 5.

I don’t really know how to rate that.

Thematically, I think it’s a fascinating concept, and while it takes far too long to start moving along as a plot, the idea of someone who openly rejects fame before receiving it in spades, and using that influence & power to bring about the end of the world as he knows it, trying to usher in the delusional revelation of a new existence without the boundaries of life & death as they’re perceived… well, hold on, I think Marilyn Manson accidentally retold Neon Genesis Evangelion, actually. That’s a bit awkward.

Jokes aside, I do think it’s a fascinating album. I just wish it wasn’t a Marilyn Manson album. By all accounts, the man is a rapist, Nazi-adjacent, & just a powderkeg of controversy that’s never been controllable. His use of the N-word here, with a hard R, is somehow surprising & not surprising at all. However, listening to this album, & taking it as it is in a way that tries to separate the man from the music, no matter how autobiographical this seems to come across as… I dunno, I’m just stuck somewhere in the middle on it. Instrumentally, it’s a lesser imitation of “The Downward Spiral”, even if a few tracks get a bit close to replicating that album’s downtrodden vibes, especially with Trent Reznor’s production work. Vocally, I think he’s trying too hard, with a simultaneous rasp in his voice & a pitch that feels like shock for shock’s sake. Lyrically, I think this album provides the very case study for “stand for everything, believe in nothing”, with so many of Manson’s lines drenched in such cynical irony that it’s hard to empathize with his sincerity or truly engage with his thought processes.

And yet, despite all of that, I find myself drawn to the visceral honesty this album presents itself with; not in the sense of Manson being a pariah for some kind of counterculture that rejects life & death as we know it, but in the sense that his convictions are laid out here in a way that is authentic to himself, in his own mind. This album is not commercially appealing, nor is it sensibly written, but it is, for better or worse, one hell of a case study into the psyche of Marilyn Manson. Someone who feels freed from the boundaries & restrictions of a traditional life/death structure, while presenting that vision in such an auditory way, is fascinating to hear. While I don’t think I would find myself willingly going back to this album, I do think it’s an album worth listening to, if only to capture a sense of whatever small cultural zeitgeist this album may have invoked.

For the record, Marilyn Manson as a person can go fuck himself. I can’t give this a 5 in both good faith & from an album standpoint. I can’t give it a 4 because for as much as I’ve given this thing some praise, I find the first section of the album a little redundant, & the middle section of the album to drag along whilst he lays out the process of this “worm” taking him over & eating him alive to become the “Antichrist Superstar”. Ultimately, this album takes too long to get to its most interesting parts & that one use of the N-word is egregious.

I do, however, feel like I can give this a justifiable 3. I think there’s a small amount of tracks that do have some appeal outside of the full album, and I think the overall tone of the album shares that appeal, in some weird, weird way. The concept has legs, but I can’t help but wonder if another, less controversial artist could’ve tackled it with the respect it deserves, in order to feel like it’s worth engaging with more fruitfully. I don’t think I’d listen to it ever again, but I do feel like I’ve gotten something out of listening to it once, which is more than I can say for truly useless albums like “Devil Without A Cause” & “Haut de Gamme”. If someone wants to give this a 1 or 2, I’d totally get it. Hell, I thought I would give this a 1 or a 2 going into it, and I’m still very willing to go back down in the future. For now, though, I think I’m at a 3.

I’m at a 4.5 that I’ll bump up to a 5.

Just a total flow state for a lot of that. We managed to get every single solo Wu-Tang album here before getting this one, so while it’s a little weird coming at this from a backwards perspective, I honestly think hearing all of their individual styles fleshed out more on their own projects helped this album come across even better, in an Avengers-y sort of way. Since a lot of the references on their solo albums all eventually come back to tracks here, I feel like a lot of this album’s charisma was already prevalent in my brain, but that didn’t stop this from being a super enjoyable experience. It’s hard to really dig into individual tracks for me here (save for “C.R.E.A.M.”, which is just as good as I’ve always hoped it would be), but they were fucking flowing across the board here. I don’t think there’s a single wasted line on this album, and certainly not a wasted verse.

So, why a 4.5 then? A lot of little things; no explicit flaws, just some quirks that build up in a way that just pulls the album down a little. I think the mixing of the album is just a little bit awkward; the instrumentals themselves are great & the movie samples feel classic, but I think the actual members of the Wu-Tang Clan are mixed a little lower here, leading to a quieter, muffled effect. It helps on a few tracks in a way that maintains a sort of vibe, but there are a few tracks where it just sticks out, especially on some of the softer & more simple beats. It’s not bad at all, but it feels less polished. Maybe a remaster would help, I dunno. There’s a few moments where instrumentals and outros go a little long, but those are pretty rare. I think having two solo tracks here is a little strange, but Method Man’s fucking ruled & “Clan in da Front” has some nice energy to it. I think my biggest thing is that the album ends on a remix of “Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber” that does nothing other than change the beat. I knocked Limp Bizkit for it, I knocked George Harrison for it, I knocked Marvin Gaye for it, & damn it, I’ll knock the Wu-Tang Clan for it. Sorry.

Still though, none of those issues pile up in a way that would ever make me consider a 4, and as a whole, it’s a very free-flowing 58 minutes that just kills it across the board. Wu-Tang Clan ain’t nothing to fuck with indeed, & this is as stylish of a debut as there’s ever been in hip-hop. I do think that in terms of the East Coast sound, “Illmatic” might still be the gold standard for production of the era, but this is certainly up there, at least for some of the novelty & tricks RZA pulled here. Every member shines well, and it’s easy to see how they all managed to get solo albums out of this one. If this is the last time we’re getting the Wu-Tang Clan at all, it’s a hell of a way to finish them out. It’s a very easy bump up to a 5.

With a lot of bias, I’m at a 4.5 that I’ll bump up to a 5.

When I was a kid, one of the things I distinctly remember involved my dad playing old Hee Haw reruns on TV. Hee Haw is an old country music variety show, with a lot of probably poorly aged skits, but it was WILDLY popular when it was running, with just about every country music star of the era making at least one appearance. It was like SNL for country stars, and honestly, I feel like I should go back and watch an episode after listening to this. Buck Owens was one of the co-hosts of the show for a long time, so I knew I recognized his face from something when this album popped up.

However, I kinda just remembered him as a TV host more than anything. I’m pleasantly surprised to find he wrote a lot of these tracks, many of which would go on to find later success when other, more established artists (such as Ray Charles) would cover them for their own albums. Buck Owens doesn’t have a great singing voice, but he does have a great voice for this old style of country music, where the lyrical imagery is a little bit exaggerated to enhance a comedic or sad effect & to conjure up more fruitful imagery in the brain. Buck Owens is more of a singing narrator here, with the instrumentals (including a lot of lovely steel pedal guitar) carrying most of the tone, though I do think Buck sounds really nice on a couple of these tracks. His lyricism is pretty good here, with only an occasional pitfall of repetition. I do think a lot of these are just sad country songs, but there’s no shame in that style for 1965.

Ultimately, it just worked for me. If you’re predisposed to like this style of country music, or just the soundscape of this era, you’ll probably enjoy this one. If you hate it, or you’re just sort of bored by Buck Owens’ slightly exaggerated twang, then the ceiling for this is probably a 3. Personally, it’s probably closer to a 4, but just because this conjured up some nice memories for me (& because I don’t think there’s actually a bad track here), I’m gonna bump it up to a 5 with a lot of bias. I just had a really nice time listening to it, and I think it’s a fine example of this “Bakersfield” style of country.

It’s a 10. It’s probably way higher.

I mean, “Welcome to the Jungle” is just so ubiquitous in all of pop culture that it’s easy to forget it’s the very first song on a debut album. It might be the greatest first track on a debut album ever. It sets such an incredibly high bar that the rest of the album feels like a challenge to top it, and somehow, by the very end, it feels like they’ve managed to go to the moon. We’ve gotten a good chunk of hard rock albums like this where I’ve entered a total zen state, fully in sync with the band, and yet I’m convinced after a first listen that this is the very best of those albums.

“Highway to Hell” was probably the gold standard going into this, and given how much this album shares its DNA with that one in terms of keeping up an insanely paced energy, I’m not surprised at how similar it felt. The difference between this & “Highway to Hell” is that there are 3 incredible all-timer tracks that I already knew about going into this; somehow, hearing them & their placement in the album as a fully structured & paced out project with two distinct sides elevated them all even higher. “Paradise City” as the closing track to the first side of the album works hand-in-hand perfectly with the thematics of “Welcome to the Jungle” & all the tracks in between, showing just how much of a bitch city life can really be. I guess I should’ve paid more attention to realize “Paradise City” is more of a “get me back to God’s country” sort of thing, but they spell it out in spades when you’re actually paying attention to these lines.

The back half of the album is all love songs, to a degree, and they all flow perfectly. I don’t think I can praise “Sweet Child o’ Mine” enough as the climax to the whole album, but the way it contrasts its flowery prose-filled representation of beauty in love works really nicely with how straightforward “Think About You” is right before it. OK, well, I guess “You’re Crazy” is a hate track, but I do kind of love a confrontational track being placed in the middle of all this. The fact that the whole album ends on a track where Axl Rose literally has recorded sex (don’t check what “Axl Rose” is an anagram for) before doing a whole speech about devotion is pretty funny, honestly. He’s totally earnest too.

It’s a brilliantly structured record, given the “G” side & the “R” side being thematically distinct yet all blending together via their soundscapes & energy. Since each track feels like it’s doing its own thing, it all sticks out more memorably as a full set of tracks as opposed to the total ball of energy of “Highway to Hell” as one long blended kick-ass thing. I really can’t praise this album enough, but any more words I type would just be repetitive. Ultimately, it’s one hell of a Christmas present to get this. The whole album is a front to back masterpiece of hard rock, and I can’t imagine we’ll get one in this style that surpasses this, at least for ones that I’ll end up in total sync with. It’s a 10, if not way higher.

I’m personally at a 4, but for the sake of the site, I’m gonna give this a 5 because you’re all fucking cowards.

*This* is the 8th worst album on the site? This weird, medieval-influenced piece of avantgarde music with incredibly loose lyrics, strange sitar work, oddly long held monotone notes, and plucky guitars & harmonica that all feel like they’re on the verge of collapse at any given moment? OK, if I wrote it like that, I might actually get it a little bit, but… that’s different from listening to it.

Giving this album a chance reveals a very strange effect, one that I can’t fully explain, but one that I can mentally comprehend: these tracks all start off with some coherence, before the blend of his longer held notes & the off-kilter rhythm to the instrumentals sort of makes you lose your place & your focus, sweeping you into its weird pacing. While you’re scrambling to find your place & your own rhythm, the loose lyricism present here, with vague allusions that the mind can sort of conjure yet not really comprehend, lingers in the air, since his vocals have a constant presence. This album, through that sense of induced confusion, forces you to interact with it in the exact way that the Incredible String Band intended because of its avant-garde nature; sure, it’s not the most melodically pleasing or the most orthodox style, but I’ll be damned if it’s not strangely compelling, if not hypnotic at times.

I mean, I really can’t tell you a *single* thing about the meaning of these tracks, or if they connect in any kind of fashion other than the soundscape that loosely unites them. I also don’t know if it really matters. This album feels like an instrumental album, but with lyrics written after the fact & vocals taking the place of something else. I think if you can meet this album where it’s at by allowing them to take control, the weird hypnosis of it all will click a lot better than if you try to engage with this as an album meant to be comprehended. This is an album where you *feel* these tracks out, with whatever little of the lyrics you catch meant to supplement the trance of the soundscape. For my tastes, something about it clicked. I can’t really explain why, and normally, I would be more frustrated by that inability to grasp it, but for some reason, that gut feeling is acting as a positive. I *like* this album.

I dunno, maybe the “acid” part of acid folk is carrying a bit more weight here than I thought, but regardless, it’s a very intentionally designed 49 minutes. If it clicks, it clicks, and if it doesn’t, then it doesn’t. I understand the 2.15 to a degree, but I think it’s entirely formed out of cowardice towards the strange. I think it’s an album that manages to find an incredible sense of freedom for its time just by being so different. Granted, I don’t really hear how the fuck Led Zeppelin modeled their debut after this at all, but more power to the Incredible String Band for having some kind of influence on them. Apparently, Paul McCartney really liked this album too? If the musicians got “it”, whatever that “it” is, then I think I’m justified in giving this a 4. For the sake of the site, just to try and pull this average out of a bottom 10 hell, I’m gonna give it a 5.

I’m at a 5.

Less of a CSNY & more of a SYFM – I didn’t even realize Stills & Young were a part of Buffalo Springfield, let alone that Stephen Stills had lead vocals on “For What It’s Worth”, which isn’t even on this album. That’s one way to sneak them both in again. Frankly, I’m glad they did; I really liked this album. Granted, it’s more of a collection of solo songs (with Neil Young doing his own weird side thing throughout), but somehow, they flow cohesively together for a pretty strong 34 minute package. For 1967, the Sgt. Pepper of it all is lingering here a bit with how cinematic & bold Neil’s tracks come across, but his ambitions are peppered with Stephen Stills providing some pretty grounded tracks & the rest of the band doing their own country/rock hybrid thing, which is sometimes brilliantly solemn.

For some reason, I really want to point at “Good Time Boy”, which needed a little more of a vocal clarity in the mix, but otherwise, sticks out as a sort of Little Richard-esque track, with Dewey Martin somehow managing to find a quick stage presence in his one vocal lead on the album. Not bad for the drummer. Out of all the tracks though, I think “Bluebird” & “Sad Memory” struck me the best as two sides of the same coin; the former is about acceptance of grief in losing a partner with big bombastic orchestral work, & the other is about the inability to cope with the grief of what’s ultimately a poor relationship muttered through a soft guitar lead. It’s a good sharp contrast between the band itself, and maybe it can even be seen as an allegory for the ambitions of their careers, given that Richie Furay went on to become a pastor.

Ultimately, I really liked it. I think the music speaks for itself pretty well here (although the whole “losing your shot” metaphor of “Broken Arrow” might need some explaining). If you’re used to Neil Young or Stephen Stills’ style of music, their tracks more than carry the weight here, although I’m surprised that Richie Furay’s tracks clicked as well as they did. If you’re not as used to their style, or you’re just totally sick of seeing Neil Young come up a billion times (kinda fair), then maybe this has a floor of a 3. For my tastes, I think it’s got good songwriting, good ambition, & I can’t really find a flaw with the album or its pacing. It’s just a strong set of 10 tracks. Hence, a 5.