Reviews by guggmo

I’m at a 5.

I’ve been desperate for some nice ‘90s alt-rock to pop up on this list; that Matchbox 20 / Goo Goo Dolls / Third Eye Blind sort of vibe, and while this doesn’t go all the way in terms of getting to that style, I’m totally fine that it doesn’t. This feels like a good blend of that style to come by the late '90s, and the sort of base that R.E.M. & others set in the mid-late ‘80s, and it’s a style that works very very well for me. Someone else might dismiss this album as cookie-cutter alt rock, and that’s fine; it’s not everyone’s taste. For me, though, this album is scratching an itch that I’ve been wanting to scratch for a while.

I knew of Crowded House, but only in the sense of “Don’t Dream It’s Over”, which feels like a sort of quintessential cheesy ‘80s ballad. I’m very glad they showcased a lot more of their range here, and in a super fruitful way – lots of clever & witty lines here, with a lot of strong imagery in between to still set a tone, even if some references might jump past the head a bit. I think the lyricism on this album is at its best when it’s at its most earnest, like on “Fall at Your Feet”, “Four Seasons in One Day”, or “She Goes On”. Instrumentally, while it’s still pretty guitar heavy (this is a rock album after all), they find good ways to shake it up, with a sort of Phil Collins-esque variety at times, jumping from style to style yet still feeling coherent. A track like “Weather With You” can pull out some African influenced percussion, just in the same way that “As Sure As I Am” can break out an accordion, or a sort of Dylan-esque harmonica on “Italian Plastic” – they all fit within each track really well, and as such, they don’t feel like an abrupt shift in styles, which helps a lot. Neil & Tim Finn have great fucking vocals by the way. You just have to hear them harmonize to understand that, but there’s lots of fun vocal structures here that are infectiously catchy.

Overall, I just really enjoyed it. A little bit plain for some, and I can’t fault that at all, but this is a style I’m just a sucker for, & one that I think needs a little bit more representation on the list. There’s not a bad track here to my ears, though it is a little front-loaded on the singles, with much of the back half noticeably being less strong, but still good regardless. I feel like I might need to hear more Crowded House, to at least shake the perception of them as just the “Don’t Dream It’s Over” band. I’m glad this is on the list, and it’s a pretty strong 5 for me.

I’m at a 10. I’m a fucking mess right now.

Last year, a very good friend of mine that I’d known since high school lost her child at less than a year old. The one year anniversary of that death came around recently, and it’s the only thing I could think of while listening to this album. This album is Nick Cave’s chance to mourn his son Arthur, who died in 2015 at the age of 15. I don’t think I’ve ever heard that sense of grief & sorrow captured so fruitfully on tape. He'd be my exact age now, which makes this album feel all the more haunting, just imagining how my parents would've reacted if it had somehow happened to me.

I mean, I’m genuinely just an emotional wreck now, and I wasn’t even the one who went through it. I can’t imagine listening to an album like this after having gone through it, let alone creating one. I don’t have the words to describe how this album has made me feel, so instead, I will give the pen back to Nick Cave, who wrote the following in July of this year, reflecting on the 10 years since his son’s death:

“The pain remains, but I have found that it evolves over time. Grief blossoms with age, becoming less a personal affront, less a cosmic betrayal, and more a poetic quality of being as we learn to surrender to it. As we are confronted with the intolerable injustice of death, what seems unbearable ultimately turns out not to be unbearable at all. Sorrow grows richer, deeper, and more textured. It feels more interesting, creative, and lovely.

To my great surprise, I discovered that I was part of a common human story. I began to recognise the immense value and potential of our humanness while simultaneously acknowledging, at my core, our terrifyingly perilous situation. I learned we all *actually* die. I realised that although each of us is special and unique, our pain and brokenness is not. Over time, Susie and I came to understand that the world is not indifferent or cruel, but precious and loving – indeed, *lovely* – tilting ever toward good.

I discovered that the initial trauma of Arthur’s death was the coded cypher through which God spoke, and that God had less to do with faith or belief, and more to do with a *way of seeing*. I came to understand that God was a form of perception, a means of being alert to the poetic resonance of being. I found God to be woven into all things, even the greatest evils and our deepest despair. Sometimes I feel the world pulsating with a rich, lyrical energy, at other times it feels flat, void, and malevolent. I came to realise that God was present and active in both experiences.

These days, I am neither distrustful nor suspicious of the world, even though my heart breaks for it, and I am not despairing, depressed or embittered. Indeed, I see heartbreak as the most proportional response to the state of the world – to say I love you is to say my heart breaks for you, and this sentiment resonates within all things, bringing a clarity to both the world before us and the world beyond the veil. Sorrow becomes a way of life, part laughter, part tears, with very little space between. It is a way of conducting oneself in the world, of loving it, of worshipping it.”

I can only hope to find some level of newfound beauty & trust in the world, along with some level of newfound perspective of faith, should trauma at that scale ever come my way. I can’t express exactly what Nick Cave has done with this album, but I do know that it is one you must hear before you die. Numbers don’t apply to something that acts as such a potent expression of one’s bared, battered & beaten soul, but I suppose this is a 10. What a piece of art.

P.S.: I suppose I should address one aspect of the album, just so this doesn’t feel like a purely mopey bit of prose. The first track, “Spinning Song”, being about Elvis & his impact on the world almost feels disconnected on a first pass through the album, but I would argue it’s the perfect opening track, once the rest of the album reveals itself. Forget about Elvis himself – think about the way people *remember* Elvis. They worshipped that man. Hell, they still worship that man, given that we just had two movies based on his life in 2022 & 2023. “Spinning Song” uses Elvis as a metaphor for how much impact someone can have on your life. For Nick Cave, his son is his Elvis, and by putting his impact on his life to tape like this, it’ll live on just as long as Elvis’ records have. It’s a perfect opening track, at least for the context of what Arthur meant to him.

I’m at a 10. That's one of the best country albums I’ve ever heard in my life.

“Songs in the Key of Life” came out one year after this, and I’m struck by the difference in style; Stevie is bold, bombastic, & electric, with worldly music styles & some of the most complex production ever done to that point. Willie Nelson here, telling the somber story of this red headed stranger is… well, it’s basically his voice & a guitar, for the most part. Light percussion & piano, sure, and later in the album, some harmonica & other instrumentation that adds to everything, but overall, this is a very plainly told album. The difference is striking, just because they’re both equally as effective at speaking to the soul, at least to my ears.

The overall story here is simple: the red-headed stranger (who happens to be a preacher) was devastated that his wife left him, so he killed both her & the person she’s cheating with, a crime done out of pure sorrow. He moves away, taking his wife’s horse with him, and killing the first woman who dares to even touch it. He finds himself in Denver, where he falls in love again at a saloon, and lives out his life with this new woman. That’s it. At face value, it’s a tale you could tell in a single song, and yet Willie Nelson manages to stretch it out to a full 34 minute album, one that never feels like it’s padding for time. Every track choice is perfect, with a vast majority of the album being covers, yet ones that fit with the narrative in a way that feels seamless & original. The album feels vivid & cinematic, partly due to how it manages to incorporate motifs really well. It’s no surprise that this actually ended up as a movie, even if it’s apparently just sorta mediocre.

It’s an album that deserves to be listened to in one straight shot (with headphones in!), and one where I don’t think I can accurately capture it with words. At the very least, I certainly can’t capture how emotional of a pleading climax “Can I Sleep In Your Arms” felt like with words alone. That’s a track that needs the full buildup of every track before it to really hit, and it hit me like a truck. Granted, it might just be because I found myself imagining this whole thing playing out in my head, and Willie’s soundtrack to the pictures in my brain just fit perfectly. I really do think it’s one of the best country albums I’ve heard in my life, at least in terms of concept albums. There's probably an earlier one we’ve gotten that has more technically sound vocals or instrumentals or some other dazzling thing to it, but in terms of just telling a story… this is how you do it. This is a masterclass in storytelling. Anyone who claims to make “country” music nowadays needs to listen to this entire album, because this is the blueprint. I think it’s a 10.

What the fuck do you rate that?

I dunno, I guess a 4.5 bumped up to a 5? Maybe? That’s my first instinct, anyway. Don’t get me wrong; if we’re going entirely off of musical proficiency here, this would probably be at a 3, but if you’re coming to an album like this looking for musical proficiency on the lines of a Duke Ellington or a Stevie Wonder, then go somewhere else. Fuck off, even. This is an album made to capture a visceral sense of frustration & rage rooted in some kind of deep-seated, pent-up aggressive depression. Corey Taylor’s not here to serenade you with a vocal melody, he’s here to fucking scream in your face, and you just have to sit there and listen to him, and there’s not a goddamn thing you can do about it. If you’re so inclined to agree with what he’s saying, or at least, you choose to sit down, engage with & understand him to the point of feeling his frustration at a palpable level, then congratulations: you’re probably going to like this album as a 50-minute audio rage room to let loose in & watch a man become suicidally feral, screaming at the top of his lungs the vast majority of the time, with a wailing guitar that feels like an earthquake in your ears, the most mind-numbing percussion you’ve heard in your life moving at 100 miles an hour, & a sense of perverse liberation from a deep dark place that most human beings’ brains will never sink to. I think that’s where I’m at with it, because for whatever god damn reason, I found myself really fucking enjoying this.

I can’t write anything about individual tracks here; I was barely paying attention to the lyrics as they were. I caught glimpses of lines, and caught a few of them in my ears, but this is an album that you’re meant to feel as opposed to comprehend. I’m not even sure this album would be enhanced with the lyrics, since there’s definitely a few over the top stinkers of cheesy lines, even for 1999. I think I felt this album the way it was intended, and while I am exaggerating that sense of “perverse liberation” just a bit (I’m assuming a good chunk of this album is intentionally over the top), I think there’s enough of a nugget of truth to the frustrations laid out on this album & those suicidal, self-harming tendencies, that the energy present on this album can’t really be faked, at least not that much. I can understand why this would’ve been worrying to a number of people in 1999, and why today’s more empathetic tendencies look back on this phase of music as an angsty regret… but I’ll be honest, I think letting that frustration out like this might be more of a necessity than we realize. That might be why I enjoyed it a lot, as a sort of vicarious release of stress, even without any of those tendencies in my brain (and I pray I never go that deep). Either that, or I just really liked his percussion a lot.

Overall, you just have to hear it & feel it. It’s not for everyone, and I’m sure at an earlier point in this list, I would’ve dismissed it as trite, overblown nonsense that’s far too edgy for its own good. As a visceral feeling expressed in sound, however, I think it captures the vibe it’s going for really, really well, even if it’s over the top to the point of parody on a handful of tracks. Ignore the lyrics, ignore the repetition; just give space for all of that mildly ear-piercing overblown soundscape & their screaming vocals. If you give it space, and let yourself really sit in it & digest it, I think there’s something here. If you can’t feel it & give this a 1 or a 2, then that’s fine. If you can feel it, I think the floor here is a 3 (it does get just a little overplayed by the last 2-3 tracks), and the ceiling could arguably be a 10, under the most extreme of circumstances. (Maybe seek help at that point though.) For my level of enjoyment, I’m at a 4.5 bumped up to a 5. It’s worth being on the list.

I’m at a 5. Hell, probably a little higher.

Pretty striking minimalism here. I’ve gotten so used to tracks that fill up their soundscape with everything to add as much “depth” as possible, and yet here, that sense of empty space is used to a really, really strong degree. This album doesn’t do anything super complex with its melodies, relying on the presence (in the “aura” sense) of the instrumentation to sell the mood. Everything here is deliberate, whether it’s a simple guitar pattern, some punchier or lighter percussion, or pulling back that instrumentation to let the vocals breathe more. It’s so tightly produced that it’s easy to notice what the album is trying to do, but it’s also easy to underappreciate how effectively it’s doing it, because it does it almost effortlessly. It stems from the usage of the empty space in the tracks; it’s an instrument unto itself, and it’s used really, really well. A number of tracks make the instrumentation quieter, letting that empty space stick out more.

Lyrically, this is an album focused mostly on love, but a specific corner of love; namely, the tension that exists in the paranoid little corner of the brain that’s too hesitant to fully commit to a relationship out of previous fears. Some tracks overcome it, others don’t, some take place long after that tension has boiled over in a sad way, and some leave that tension unanswered. In a way, it’s a little bit one-note, and mixed with the generally persistent instrumentation, I can hear how this album might bounce off to some people as one that’s a little too similar for its own good. For my tastes though, I think this album approaches the subject matter with enough musical variation that it never got stale or felt too similar. Part of it comes in the vocals; I really, really like Romy Madley Croft’s vocal style, as she reminds me of Bjork with more of a slight British accent. She harmonizes well with Oliver Sim, and while his vocals aren’t as trained, I think it helps make the tension feel more authentic, since it sometimes feels like they’re talking past each other rather than talking to each other.

Overall, the lo-fi, vaguely dreamy tone of the album worked really well for me. I think the lyricism enhances the tracks, but they’re not as necessary to capture the soft-spoken nature of the album. These aren’t confrontational tracks, nor are they angsty or messy. They’re just… complicated. I can’t think of many other albums that leave relationships in such a gray area, with a lot of the anxious, earnest & avoidant honesty intact. Commitment is a struggle, clinging on feels like delaying the inevitable, breakups are tense, & those lingering feelings of regret are really hard to navigate around. This album captures that overall anxiety really well, & it makes a track like “Stars” really stick out as the first truly comfortable relationship portrayed on the album, and a very appropriate closer. I think it’s structured really well to get to that point, and in that sense, it’s a super successful album. If it bounces off from just a musical standpoint, I could understand that, but I think it deserves its flowers. Hence, a 5, if not a bit higher.

I’m at a 3.5 that I’ll bump up to a 4; took a bit to get there, and it only really solidified it by the last track.

I put a decent amount of stake in lyrics, but my approach to lyricism is less about understanding the words in full, and more so capturing a general picture to pull from. I think the best albums can create great imagery with very few words, and as long as the picture itself can be painted in a vivid way where the *intent* of the track falls into place, it’s an enriching experience.

I had absolutely no idea what the fuck the first 3 tracks on this album were trying to paint. They were painting little bit of pictures with their individual lines, sure, but I was never able to grasp a full picture out of them. Even on a re-listen after enjoying the back half of the album far more, I only got super broad strokes of intent that left those tracks less fruitful to my brain. I’m decently sure “Slow Education” is about a sort of drab approach to life & nothing has really ever improved after the Biblical interpretation of creation, but it’s not supplemented by anything to paint the full picture. “Room Games and Diamond Rain” is definitely a love track, but I never really got half the lines. “Time Will Break the World” creates a great image of a mansion in the wintertime, but I was never able to capture the intent of the track – the rich people need to fix climate change, maybe?

“I Remember Me” finally sets itself straight, with some level of clear, straightforward imagery about a love ruined by a coma, and it’s a great track that starts to set up the back half of the album, but not before the confusing “Horseleg Swastikas”. I have no idea what the fuck that one’s about; again, it creates a decent enough picture, but the intent of the track is lost on me – is it just about striving for no ambition, or something? After that, “Transylvania Blues” just kinda kills as an instrumental. “Let’s Not and Say We Did” is a great example of painting a picture entirely on the vibes alone; I wasn’t album to get the lines at all, but the up-tempo nature to everything created a sort of childlike vibe to it that spelled out the intent of the track really well, and I just enjoyed it.

“Tennessee” is very R.E.M. / Sufjan Stevens-esque, and it really is just a nice cheesy love letter to the state & the love he wants to find in moving there. “Friday Night Fever” is a George Strait cover, and it’s just a nice straight country track. I’m surprised George Strait doesn’t have any albums on the list, but I guess he’s more of a singles guy. “Death of an Heir of Sorrows” is a lovely tribute track to a friend that recently died, and just the title alone evokes something – I couldn’t really figure out what, but it clicked very well, and his sadness is palpable. It’s the capper to a nice 5-track stretch that elevates this album up from a 3.5 to a 4 for me.

Oh, right, his vocals & the instrumentals and all that – I think David Berman (rest in peace) does a fine enough job, if a little plain at times. He’s not trying to be a gifted singer, but he has just enough of a melodic tone in his more half-talking style that it works. It’s earnest, at least, and you can tell he’s trying, even if other singers might’ve been able to pull a bit more emotion out of the lines. Instrumentally, I did like this; it feels more like indie rock with country instrumentation, as opposed to “country music” as one might traditionally define it, but I think it’s good all the same. I think once the lyrics get to their more straightforward point in the back half of the album, the instrumentation feels more potent at capturing the mood, which helps a lot.

Overall then, with the first 3 tracks & “Horseleg Swastikas” being unable to paint a strong picture for me, but the other 6 painting pretty good ones, I think I’m justified in bumping this up from a 3.5 to a 4. I understand the 2.68 rating on the site, as I felt tempted to sort of give up on the album once 4 of the first 5 tracks weren’t clicking for me (I’d give those 4 tracks a 3, as a totally competent if bland set of tracks), but “I Remember Me” & the back half really pulls this thing up nicely. I do think I want to hear more of these guys; David Berman seems like a talented songwriter. I’m glad it’s on the list; others can debate if it really needs to be an album you hear before you die (it’s probably not, I dunno), but I enjoyed it. It’s a 3.5 that I’ll bump up to a 4.

I’m at a 5.

It might be the 302 albums we’ve gotten since “Lust for Life” & a newfound penchant for the avantgarde speaking, but I found myself really enjoying the atmosphere this album brings. It’s founded on a sort of “electronic rock / blues” vibe that slowly grows moodier & more intense over the course of the album, eventually culminating in the sirens at the very end of “Mass Production”, & that slow burn approach works very well here. David Bowie’s production work is fantastic, with a lot more layers to it than I was expecting, especially for synthier stuff circa 1977. Windier tones, some pulsating drum beats, & a lot of heavier, yet muted guitar work sets the stage nicely on a lot of the tracks, and while it’s sort of adjacent to “Low”’s style, it’s a much different energy, leaning into some poppier rock & roll tones without getting too "happy". I haven’t heard “Heroes” yet, so maybe those comparisons will become rather obvious down the line. The music tells most of the story here, with Iggy Pop’s vocal performance only serving to enhance that atmosphere – he’s usually pretty deliberate in taking a more monotone approach, making his higher pitches feel like they have extra force behind them, and it works really well.

I do hear how this one might be more hit & miss – I listened to it with headphones in, so some of the interesting layering on a track like “Nightclubbing” or “Dum Dum Boys” might not come across as well on pure speakers. It’s an album that rewards paying attention to its instrumental choices, but it’s not a necessity to do so. Lyrically, I’d say these are pretty strong, enhancing the tracks, but they barely matter as much; “Dum Dum Boys” is the only one where the extra emotional weight of his breakup with the Stooges makes the lyricism feel sort of necessary, though his vocal style gives most of the emotional pull regardless. If all of those add up in a way that doesn’t mesh with one’s style, I can hear how this could be as low as a 2 for someone, as it might come across as a bit too safe or plain. I know it hit me at one point; “Baby” is a fine track that just didn’t fully click for me, so that could easily spread to a lot of the album.

For my tastes though, this is a pretty damn good project, with great moody tracks that know exactly when to flip an energetic switch. Seriously, listening to it as background noise while writing this has made me realize just how damn good the guitar work is here. I’m glad it’s on the list, and it’s a very strong 5. This is the last solo Iggy Pop album we’ll be getting, but against all odds (literally a 4.68% chance), we’ve yet to get any of his work with the Stooges, and that’s 3 more albums for Iggy Pop to impress me with. I gave Lust for Life a 4, I’m gonna give this a well-deserved 5, and I can only hope that those Stooges albums live up to expectations now.

I’m at a 5.

Not quite the easily digestible tones of “Court & Spark” (which I gave a 10 to), but a lovely road trip album regardless. This album is deeply inspired by a lot of Joni’s personal life, making it a little harder to digest at first, but I think once the “therapeutic road trip” angle comes in, a lot of this album really melts into place. Joni Mitchell apparently went traveling a LOT in 1976, crossing through a lot of America while on & off various tours, even with no driver’s license. This album is practically her recollection of those cross-country trips, reckoning with why she did them, the sense of heartbreak that caused her to do them in the first place, and trying to heal her tensions & vices that came to light before & after the trips. I suppose “Hejira” really makes sense as an album title, given that it’s a loose translation for Muhammad’s spiritual pilgrimages from Mecca to Medina.

I think it’s a very well written album; rather verbose at times, and occasionally a bit cryptic (namely on “Amelia” with its false alarms), but full of vivid & rewarding imagery in its most straightforward moments. “Furry Sings the Blues” being about the decay of such a vitally important spot in music (Beale Street in Memphis) stood out really well to me, as did the deep desire for marriage on “Song for Sharon”. I do think “Court & Spark” is a better written album, but it’s just because I was able to pick up on a lot of the metaphorical writing there on a first pass, whereas some of these took a bit longer to reveal themselves, though they're rather vivid all the same. Joni Mitchell’s voice is still very good; not as dazzling as it was on “Court & Spark” due to her more conversational / talkative tone on this album, but she still has some moments with a presence & power that can only come out of someone who really means the tracks they’ve written.

Instrumentally, it’s a much more blues-y / jazz inspired album, which leaves it a bit more somber & slightly more one-note than the variety of “Court & Spark”, yet the moody attitude rolls along really nicely. I compare it, in a sense, to “Autobahn” by Kraftwerk; not in the style of music at all, but in terms of capturing a sense of travel. The simplicity of the lead guitar on a lot of the tracks, when surrounded by the passing bass melodies, the very light percussion, and the myriad of other atmospheric instrumentation (special shoutout to Neil Young’s harmonica on “Furry Sings the Blues”) really creates the feeling of just looking out of a window whilst driving or flying or some other form of transportation, and just contemplating life as it is, while the scenery whips by. I think it’s very easy to have those moments as a passenger or a driver, lost in your own thoughts. That’s what this album captures very well, and while the sense of verbosity in the lyrics is intimidating at first, I think they’re just there to give richer depth to the imagery that her voice & these instrumentals already succeed at capturing. They’re optional, and they add a lot to the album, but they’re not crucial.

As a whole, then, I really enjoyed it. I do think there’s a bit of mixing issues on a few tracks that distract from what the album is going for, with some instrumentals burying Joni’s voice in the mix. This could’ve also been trimmed down by a bit; I wouldn’t cut any tracks, but some verses here feel a little more tangential than others, in a way that’s not as tight as it could be. Overall, though, it is a road trip album, and it may be even more enhanced by just listening to it in a car. I think it’s a rewarding album if you choose to engage with the lyricism, but it’s not as necessary as it seems on a first pass. It’s got great instrumentation (quick acknowledgement for Jaco Pastorius of Weather Report doing bass on some of these tracks, & any of the other session musicians here), great vocals, and I can’t find many flaws with it. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s certainly mine, and I think it’s a 5.

I’m at a 3.5 that I’ll bump down to a 3.

This is a fine enough album – it’s just not really my style. Instrumentally, I think what’s here has a pretty damn good energy to it, and the band is technically sound. Their performances help steer a rhythm that each track needs to keep from falling apart (save for when they intentionally fall apart, for effect), and they’re good enough that the album stays very listenable throughout. I think where this album falls down for me comes in two things, one more consequential than the other. The first is in the repetition; not a big deal, given that this is just what 1970s punk rock is, and more of a hit-or-miss in terms of how well they shake it up from track to track. I’d say they shake it up well around 60% of the time, but that other 40% just hits a total snag for me, and somehow makes the first 29 minutes of this album feel a lot slower than that, especially after “Media Blitz”. The second is… well…

Darby Crash has a very abrasive voice. I think I get what he’s going for, and I admire his vocal style as a pure ball of energy, throwing caution to the wind for vocal structures & any kind of safe enunciation to use it as an instrument unto itself. I think it works on a few tracks, but for my tastes, he’s just a little bit too free / loose here. I think a lot of these tracks have decent enough lyrics to them, but I can’t understand what he’s saying to save my life without those lyrics in front of me. Even when I can kinda catch those lyrics, I don’t think a lot of the vocal structures here feel very melodically compelling, actively challenging and rubbing up against the rhythm of the instrumentation to create that abrasive effect.

I can hear the appeal, don’t get me wrong, and if someone wants to give this a 5 on the strength of that abrasion working for them, I can’t really fault it. It’s the make or break aspect of this album though, and it’s probably why this has a 2.53 on the site. This is influential, as I can hear a lot of other punk bands start to form from the foundation that this album set, but it just didn’t feel as compelling as it could to me. Maybe with a little more of an open mind on a future relisten, this could go up to a 4, but I don’t really see myself coming back to this album anytime soon. I do respect everything it’s going for, & I can’t say there’s ever actually a bad track here, just a lot of flatter ones, partially due to his vocal style. It just never did anything to really elevate higher, hence the 3.5 bumped down to a 3.

I’m at a 5.

25 minutes into the album, with my brain feeling sad because of the vivid imagery in the lyricism, the lovely sombering tone to the orchestration, and Frank’s voice crooning a deep sense of woe right into my ears, I stood up and looked out of a window, standing in a little doorway with the lights on behind me, but in front of me, a pitch black darkness, save for this one little light I see out of my neighbor’s window. “What Is This Thing Called Love?” was playing, and I just stood there, hearing the song, without a single line in front of me, yet understanding every word & feeling it all the same. The light went out right as the song ended. You can’t feel anything more potent than that. That cover art of Sinatra, cigar in hand, on a moody blue street in the rain, contemplating how something so potent as love can work both ways… that’s the mood of the album. You have to find a way to get into that headspace & that mood to truly appreciate this for what it is.

Granted, maybe you don’t have to be as cinematic or as immersive as I managed to find myself in, but I’ll be damned if it didn’t do wonders. I can’t go track by track here, since the album is decently one-note in that sense, but my goodness, you have to just feel those tracks for 50 minutes, somehow, someway. It is a sobering mood, and for 1955, I’m just stunned at how well that sense of heartbreak & loneliness is captured so, so well. It’s been 70 years since this came out, it’s the oldest album on the list, and yet it might be one of the finest “sad” albums I’ve ever heard. You do have to hear this before you die, and I’m so very glad it’s here. Frank Sinatra, you did damn good with this one. It’s a very easy 5 for my tastes, if not a bit higher.

I’m at a 5.

This album has a 2.98 average on the site (criminally low), with the second highest review calling it “the most background music, white-people-dinner-party type jazz you can get” – what fucking white people parties are you going to where people are playing THIS type of synth-heavy jazz fusion? I want a fucking invite, immediately. This album is fucking awesome, especially for 1977. The only track that felt a little abrasive was “Teen Town”, but that’s just because of the super punchy percussion, and even still, I liked it. This entire package is, from top to bottom, a remarkable vibe, and one that I loved just sitting in, soaking in, and occasionally jumping around in. I can’t even really give super detailed track notes, because I was just caught in the groove of this thing. The keyboard melodies are complex yet digestible, the percussion & rhythm knows exactly when to punch up to pull one’s attention back in, the guitar work (especially in the bass, my GOODNESS, the bass) is incredible, and as a whole, it’s 38 minutes that blink by in a heartbeat.

Yes, there are other bands that would take this style of jazz fusion (especially in Japan) & refine it to its finest form, but for a 1977 album, this feels like it’s leading the way, and I can’t help but give this a 5. Sure, it’s not as evocative to the emotions as say, Miles Davis, but it’s just as energetic, just as technically complex, and just as melodically sound, with my ears fully amazed at certain points. I loved this whole thing, and to my tastes, it’s a 5, through and through.

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

Maybe it’s because of Prince taking the sort of foundation Marvin Gaye set on this album to a natural extreme on “1999”, or just the much more sex-positive culture that’s been fostered in the 52 years since this album came out, but I found myself less inclined to hear this as just a “sexy” album. I’m more inclined to treat it as a sort of landmark in mixing the soul music of the late 1960s with a sort of carnal passion that would come to define the R&B music of the next… well, several decades to come. This is a sexually liberating & radically freeing album, especially for 1973. Marvin Gaye’s voice sells everything here, and frankly, it just kind of sounds like sex. The same applies to the instrumentals, which… hoo. The sax / percussion work here is a perfect backdrop for the lyricism for the vast majority of the album, and as a whole, the atmosphere this album creates for itself clearly set a new standard for other artists to follow, in terms of talking about passion like that. Just listen to a track like “If I Should Die Tonight”. That one’s incredible.

Here’s a fascinating stat for you, which could be coincidence, but I will actively choose to believe is correlation & causation: according to a CDC study on the vital statistics of 1974 (Page 75 here: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsus/nat74_1.pdf), the average number of births per month from January to June of that year was roughly 251,812. The average number of births from July to December was roughly 277,627. According to the Billboard 200 (https://www.billboard.com/artist/marvin-gaye/), this album’s peak on the charts was #2, in October of 1973. Add 9 months to that, and you get to… July of 1974. Yes, this album’s peak lines up with enough lovemaking to raise a rolling birth average by 26,000 babies per month for the back half of an entire year. If this really is a tangible & provable Marvin Gaye effect, then maybe this album deserves a 10 for that alone, I dunno.

So, why a 4.5 and not a flat 5? Eh, just a little one-note by the end, really. The passion is there, his vocals are sensual, and nothing is wrong at all. I just think the album loses some of the steam it has after the excellent “Distant Lover”, as the final 2 tracks didn’t quite come across as strongly as the first 6 did, especially on “You Sure Love to Ball” (great instrumental though). Regardless, I’d be a moron to not bump it up – this is Marvin Gaye setting a brand new standard for how to approach the topics of sex, sensuality & passion in music, and doing it in a way that still feels tasteful & sophisticated enough (especially in the instrumentation / vocals) to treat it as a serious shift, as opposed to a shock factor / publicity switch off of the back of the more socially conscious tones of “What’s Going On”. I’m very excited to get “What’s Going On” down the line, but as far as this goes, it’s a 4.5 that’s easily bumped up to a 5.

I’m at a 4.5; I’m gonna bump it up to a 5 on the strength of its first 7 tracks, but the last 5 really had me contemplating a 4.

I’m a little stretched for time, so I can’t go as in depth as I’d like to here, but I really, really loved this album through its first 7 tracks. I think the choice to go with more minimal, moody & somber piano-driven soundscapes for the whole album works very well, and save for a few tracks near the end, generally do a great job of capturing the emotional vibe Nick is going for. Nick Cave’s writing feels deeply vivid here, and the emotions he’s able to pull out, with a strong sense of empathy for the guy’s philosophically waxed heartbreak & his relationship with religion, is remarkably well done. He’s opening himself up on this album, writing less about the murder ballads of the past, and taking the first person perspective that other great songwriters inevitably grasp control of. The ideas of a non-intervening God, the defeatist attitudes towards the goodness of people, the sudden belief of destiny & the heartbreaking shattering of inevitability play really nicely through the first 7 tracks, and if this album had been just those tracks, I think I’d be at a 10. They’re that good.

After that point though, I think the album hits a bit of a PJ Harvey-adjacent snag for its final 5 tracks; when he’s on point with his writing, as on “Idiot Prayer” & “Far from Me”, the album still shines brilliantly. “Idiot Prayer” being about a murderer seeking forgiveness on his way to death row struck a nice chord with me, and “Far from Me” does a great job of capturing the slow deterioration of something full of deep devotion, taking as long to write as his relationship with PJ Harvey lasted. It’s a fantastic track, and it should have ended the album.

The other 3 tracks… well, two of them aren’t bad; “West Country Girl” is honestly fine, it just didn’t hook me for whatever reason. “Black Hair” is needlessly repetitive, sure, but I like the idea of an obsessive focal point on a track meant to proclaim love. He’s obsessed with the black hair, just as much as he’s obsessed with the rest of her. It’s just brought down by an accordion that’s deeply distracting and ends up going nowhere, which sort of ruins the attempt at a more intimate vibe.

“Green Eyes” is just useless. The spoken word echo doesn’t work, the “twinkling cunt” is an insane two-word phrase, and it just feels like it’s rehashing “Black Hair”, but in a worse & needlessly trite way. It doesn’t need to be on the album, and its presence here as the closing track to the entire package feels like a backbreaker that, if it weren’t for the strength of the first 7 tracks, would bump this all the way down to a 4.

That said… man, I really, REALLY connected with the first 7 tracks here. I had to actively stop and pause after “Where Do We Go Now But Nowhere?”, because it got me really fucking good. I think those first 7 tracks are brilliant. It might just be that break in between that caused the last 5 tracks to not hit as nicely (though “Green Eyes” is definitely useless). They’re good enough that I feel like this still deserves a bump up to a 5. Hell, if “West Country Girl” or “Black Hair” click nicer in the future (though it’s unlikely for the latter), I might be even a little higher than a 5. No matter what, it’s a damn good album, it deserves to be on the list, and I highly recommend it.

I’m at a 4.5 that I will bump up to a 5 with totally naked bias.

I’m learning something about myself when it comes to nu-metal, or nu-metal adjacent stuff; as long as the production work is met with even marginally decent lyrics, I’ll probably enjoy it. For better or worse, these soundscapes & instrumental styles are the sounds of movie trailers, game trailers & the overall pop culture of my super early youth. Even as late as 2005, a good 6 years after this album came out, I’m pretty sure this style was hanging in there, even if it was by a thread. Granted, I don’t think I’ve heard any of the songs on this album (outside of the obviously huge “Drive”) until now, but there was something oddly nostalgic to all of this.

I’ll be the first person to tell you that enjoying this album comes down to how much you enjoy this style as a guilty pleasure, and I, for better or worse, enjoy this style as a *deep* guilty pleasure. I do think it’s a little more warranted here though, as this album takes a lot of clear inspiration (at least to my ears) from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, just blending their style with more of a nu-metal lean. It’s probably why “Drive” became such a monster hit, since it does feel like it could easily fit onto “Californication” with a few tweaks. This album is mostly defined by heavy, heavy guitar work though, in a way that’s sort of overwhelming, yet still pretty melodic. Throw some record scratches on top of that, some cheesy lyrics, along with some punchy percussion, and you end up with the general base for each track. I think they do a great job of keeping it fresh every time in spite of that; a track like “Nowhere Fast” with a sort of drum & bass tone in the percussion is different from the heavy rock of “Privilege” & far, far different from something like “Battlestar Scralatchtica” or “Drive”. There’s good variety here, even if it can feel occasionally same-y to the ears.

Brandon Boyd’s got a pretty darn good voice by the way; occasionally, he sounds like Weird Al (perhaps most blatantly on “The Warmth”) & other times, he feels sort of Nickelback-y, but generally, I think he gives a good gravitas to each track, especially when he needs to yell something out. There’s some shaky vocal structures on some tracks, but he’s in a good key that makes it easy to sing along whenever a solid chorus comes up. I know “Drive” isn’t the only song here, but it’s the shining example of this. I think the other big one is probably “Pardon Me”, which in addition to a decently catchy chorus, surprised me with the rap flow, feeling like a sort of proto-Linkin Park. I’m not comparing Brandon to Chester here or anything, but it just clicked well in a familiar way.

I did call them cheesy lyrics, but they are at least lyrics that attempt to say something; generally, I think the thread of the album is accepting personal growth & maturity in the aftermath of hard times, trying to reclaim your life afterwards. It’s at least what “Drive” is about, and most of the tracks leading up to it (& after it) touch on those general themes of trying to find a path forward. There’s not really a link between each track like that, but as far as actually trying to put an album together, I’d say they flow decently well – maybe “Battlestar Scralatchtica” interrupts the pace of the album a little too abruptly, but other than that, I guess my only real confusion comes in “Out from Under” ending the album. It’s not a bad one at all, but the “fuck the authority” track coming in after an album that’s largely been about personal growth, especially during 1999 (a year where I can genuinely think of no historical reason to go “fuck the authority” mode) feels out of place as the closing track. Put it anywhere else, and then end on “Pardon Me”, and I think the album would end in a really fulfilling way.

I do think I’m giving this a lot of “guilty pleasure” bias, but I still think the floor here is a 3, at worst. People giving this a 1 or 2 like it’s a disgusting presence on the list are overreacting – at worst, I think this is a decently produced piece of nu-metal influenced rock, and at its best, I think it’s got some genuine hits & great variety that speaks to the cultural zeitgeist of this style of music in 1999 / 2000, however awkwardly it’s aged over the years. Is it an album you HAVE to listen to before you die? I dunno, probably not, but I’m glad I listened to it in full all the same. Apparently, it’s their album after this with genuinely great acclaim, so maybe I’ll listen to that in my own time. As far this album goes, I’m a total sucker for it, and while I acknowledge that it’s probably closer to a 4 for my tastes, I feel inclined to bump it up to a 5 just because I found myself enjoying it that much. Sorry, I guess.

I’m at a 4.5 that I’d love to keep there, but I think I’ll bump it down to a 4.

This album is a brilliant ball of electric guitar-infused blues rock, with a West Africa lean, brought on by the exile forced upon its band members to ongoing civil occupations caused by Sharia law. Granted, my geopolitical knowledge is rather minimal, so I’m certainly not an expert to speak on how this album came together, but I’m very glad they’ve channeled whatever frustrations that must’ve arisen from the situation into a great album. I don’t really understand any lyrics here, but I’m guessing based on a good chunk of the vocal passion thrown in that there’s certainly some level of political content in the lyrics, even in broad, chanted, rhythmic strokes. The instrumentation is where this album shines, with this album at its very best when it approaches everything with a rock lean at higher tempos. The opening track “Soubour” won me over immediately, and it felt like the album was gonna easily roll all the way to a 5.

The thing that’s stopping me from giving this a 5, and sort of stumbling down to a 4, is simply in the luster of the album going away to my ears. It’s a very dazzling album when it starts, and it carries its momentum well through the first 6 tracks or so, but save for “Petit Metier” & “Mali”, I found myself catching a generalized production pattern that slowly pulled the energy away. I think most of the last few tracks boil down to an acoustic guitar melody, a hypnotic chanty vocal style, and a slightly looping bass / percussion track, done in a way that doesn’t feel as distinct & as enrichening as the first 6 tracks came across. If you listen to a track like “Nick” or “Ai Tchere Bele”, there’s a noticeable bounciness to the percussion, coming across in a way that almost feels sort of like an Irish jig – that energy is infectious, and even when it loops a little bit, you don’t feel it because it’s just fun. When this album slows down then, that sameyness feels more amplified, and the later tracks just didn’t hook me as well as a result. They’d probably feel great on their own, but as a flowing album experience, it just didn’t fully hit for me.

I do think if I had proper translations of the lyrics in front of me (which I could not find to save my life), it could easily change my perspective of some of the atmosphere / tone of the back half of the album, but given that the first half carries itself so strongly from a musical standpoint, that shift in energy doesn’t come across as well to my ears. Don’t get me wrong: this is a *great* album. The issues I have with it are just down to personal taste; I highly recommend it regardless, and I’m very glad it’s on the list, because I certainly wouldn’t have found it otherwise. I’d love to keep this at a 4.5, but given that I found myself more disengaged for the back half of the album, solely from a musical standpoint, I think I’d be lying to myself if I bumped this up to a 5, hence the 4. A highly recommended 4 though.

Yeah, that’s a 5.

I didn’t really know what to expect going into this, but color me surprised. I think these guys might’ve made something that’s just as enjoyable as “(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?”, though obviously not as impactful. This album feels like taking an amalgamation of a bunch of 60s/70s British styles, and giving them a bit of a Britpop update, and it works remarkably well. The energy from the instrumentals & their vocals is deeply infectious, especially with the punch of the percussion & a lot of the guitar / keyboard melodies leading the way. It helps that these tracks are generally fast as hell, working at breakneck tempos that bring an energy that’s reminiscent of Oasis, yet still managing to channel more of a Beatles-y vibe on some tracks, and shades of the Sex Pistols on others, and that’s underselling just how many different singers/bands I was reminded of throughout this thing. This album doesn’t discriminate in terms of styles, with every track feeling different, yet still in the same instrumental base, to keep a sense of continuity throughout.

If I have any complaints towards it, it’s that I think the lyricism doesn’t quite have the depth it could have on a number of tracks, with just one looping verse & a chorus to carry the track. It’s especially noticeable around tracks 5-11, and perhaps most bothersome on “Time”, with just loose fragments of lines present throughout the track. There are some tracks that really do have fully structured verses though, and I really liked those. Overall, the instrumental energy / vocal delivery of these tracks manage to keep the album from ever really hitting a lull point – even when I was finally starting to notice the looping lyrics, I found it never really affected my enjoyment of the album. Besides, this is a 19-year-old, a 21-year-old, & a 26-year old, managing to make this type of layered, rich, youthful expression of an album. I can let some of their songwriting slide, since they’re just trying to capture their own vivacity in musical form, without a real regard for the “picturesque” nature of it all. The lines they did come up with are still pretty good, so I won’t blame them for saying “good enough” and letting them loop.

I don’t want to really go indepth for a track through track analysis here, so here’s some scattered notes: “sort of a Teen Titans vibe”, “don’t be a snitch”, “Travis McCoy, you fucking fraud”, “total ball of energy”, “What the fuck did Lenny do?”, “Is there a subway between Earth & Hell?”, “fine, I’ll sit up straight, damn”, “rather Beatles-y”, “they sound like South Park characters”, “really nice surprise harmonica”, “this feels like a prog interlude”, & “we need more goodbye tracks”. If nothing else, this all just means I was engaged with the album throughout, and I think it’s an album worth engaging with. It is a fast 40 minutes, and a super enjoyable one at that – I’m very glad it’s on the list, and I’m very excited to get their other album on the list somewhere down the line. Hopefully, that one is just as good, but this one is a very easy 5 to my ears.

I’m at a 10.

Yeah, I knew this was gonna be great going into it, given my familiarity with the first two tracks here (and that is one hell of a 1-2 punch to start on), but the rest of the album fucking rocks all the same. Once the prog-esque intro to “Foreplay / Long Time” kicked in, a lot more of the variety of the band came through, and the wave of energy those first two tracks brought stayed at the same level for pretty much the whole time. Instrumentally… I mean, goddamn, if I could play a guitar with even 1% of the talent these guys have, I’d feel blessed. The percussion is fantastic too, with the drums finding new ways to pulse out power on every track. The electronica / synth stuff present here blends in perfectly as well, especially on some of the organ solos with just a touch of reverb present to give them a cool depth effect. I have no complaints on the instrumentation whatsoever; this might be ‘70s “dad rock” at a peak of sorts, and this is coming from a fucking debut album.

Vocally, Brad Delp sounds like the king of the fucking world here – what a voice, genuinely. I have no idea how you can channel that much power & command into tracks like these, let alone still manage to bring out the extent of the emotions that aren’t really present in the lyrics. The lyrics themselves are generally pretty straightforward, and that’s an advantage here, since it gives Brad more room to drag as much as he can out, and he somehow pulls out far, far more than I think other vocalists would have. His held notes are crazy, his highest pitches feel unattainable nowadays, and as a whole, he shines just as much as the instrumentals do.

It’s a perfect combination, and combined with some masterful production work to keep everything glued together, as well as a solid variety of genres within this arena rock base, the whole thing rocks. It is 37 minutes of near perfection – if I have even a minor nitpick, it’s that the last two tracks feel just a little lesser compared to the first 6. “Something About You” just kinda feels the same as “Peace of Mind”, and “Let Me Take You Home Tonight” doesn’t really feel like a closing track until they punch up the energy for the last minute or so – they’re still both great tracks though, with the former still hitting some insane adrenaline rushes (especially at the drop near the end) & the latter just being a lovely (if slightly cheesy) love track, with a sort of southern gospel energy at the end.

Ultimately, there’s nothing here that would persuade me from giving this a 10. It’s a stellar set of tracks that feels like a greatest hits album, and yet, it’s their fucking debut. It’s a masterclass in how to do energetic ‘70s rock, and even with a number of these tracks (especially “More Than A Feeling”) being overplayed to death in the 49 years since this came out, for my first time listening to the vast majority of these tracks, I thought they all fucking ruled. No real complaints, no skips, no pausing, and no way this is getting anything lower than a 10. I loved it. I gotta listen to their other albums, I think.

I’m at a 2.

It’s just boring. That’s the TL;DR: it’s really, really fucking boring. Instrumentally, it’s not bad, and there’s generally a decent energy that comes through on a number of the tracks that keeps this thing at least generously listenable. The attempts at blending in some extra genres onto a reggae base are alright at best & sort of an overproduced flop at worst. There are some egregiously boring tracks here though; a lot of the back half of the album suffers from incessantly plain instrumentals with no sense of progression whatsoever, or an utterly plain lead melody that’s not memorable in the slightest. The back half is the worst half, but at least the front half of the album is trying to do something fun, and generally, it works well to the ears, even if it slightly falls apart under any kind of real analysis.

Finley Quaye, in addition to singing here, produced this album himself, and I’ll give him some credit for keeping it together. This is a Scottish man, whose dad was born in London, and his great-grandfather was born in Ghana. This is… Jamaican reggae music. I’m not saying there’s not any overlap here between musical styles, because there almost certainly is, but the link in terms of familial influence feels more like a tribute act for the hell of it than one with any kind of deeper roots. His vocals are fine; slightly melodic at best, often passably “too present” in ways that take attention away / overshadow some of the instrumentals, and downright incomprehensibly babbly at worst. His presence is sort of felt, but ultimately, I found it to be distracting more than anything, and that’s because of this album’s real biggest sin.

I have absolutely no idea what the fuck he’s saying. Lyrically, Finley Quaye is no Bob Marley, and as such, the vast majority of lines here feel unfinished, they feel yappy, and as a whole, none of these tracks come across as feeling complete. The only shining grace here is the lovely “Your Love Gets Sweeter”, which has such a positive & bright vibe in its actually structured lyrics, that I can sort of look past the mediocre instrumental to give it some praise as the track I enjoyed the most. Beyond that, though… boy, some of these make not a goddamn lick of sense. I can’t even really go back and tell you which ones, because I found myself baffled half the time to even wager a guess. It’s very easy to hear though. Going off of Spotify plays, I guess people like “Even After All”, and that track seems like… I dunno, apologizing for soldiers being murderers and loving them regardless, or something? I couldn’t parse it, and I somehow parsed most of “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway”. Maybe it’s a UK thing.

I don’t think it’s a terrible album, just one that’s so utterly mediocre that it comes across as deeply boring – I do think there are bad tracks, but nothing that brings outright rage because it totally sucks or anything, just purely underwhelming energy, or a lack of care that makes me not want to care. I think it has maybe the most boring track we’ve gotten throughout the 1001 so far, which is the 4-minute drum loop that is “Red Rolled and Seen”, a track that truly, truly goes nowhere for its entire runtime. Even “Haute de gamme” at least bothered to put a lead melody on its dogshit tracks. Ultimately, the early instrumental energy, the enjoyable “Your Love Gets Sweeter”, and the earnest effort put into a lot of this album to at least present itself as a passable attempt to refresh reggae music for the late ‘90s, all get this the saving grace of a 2. I truly don’t think it actually gets as low as a 1 (save for “Red Rolled and Seen”), and maybe the ceiling here is a 3 if some of these tracks ever click a little better in the future, though I don’t see myself coming back to this album anytime soon. For now though, it’s 51 minutes (too long) that leaves me unimpressed, but at least in a way where I can tell they tried. It’s a 2.

No more “Quaye”s on the list, thankfully. Between this & “Maxinquaye”, I can’t say they’ve been lucky.

I’m at a 4.

There’s an old phrase: “a chain is only as strong as its weakest link”. It takes about 30 seconds for this album to reveal its weakest link, and that is lead vocalist, Peter Perrett. Everything surrounding him screams success; the band can fucking rip a good instrumental break, the guitars sound awesome, the percussion has a good power to it, the bass feels deep, and overall, everything surrounding him has a sort of natural charisma / personality to it. There’s nothing technically wrong about this album.

Peter Perrett’s voice is… I mean, it’s not even that bad, really. It just sticks out like a sore thumb. He’s not doing anything wrong, he just doesn’t fit on most of these tracks. He somehow sounds like both lead characters in Smiling Friends combined, occasionally feeling disinterested in his delivery. He’s trying, and there are moments where his voice does work decently well, and occasionally harmonize well to disguise his pitfalls. It’s just too noticeable as the weak link of the album, and while I’m not saying singers grow on trees, it does feel like they could have found someone else out there, you know?

All of that said, even if he’s the weakest link, this is still a very strong chain, and one that’s strong enough to give it a 4. Some of these tracks fucking rip, especially “The Beast” & “The Immortal Story”, & instrumentally, this is as good as any late 70s power pop I can remember. The vocal structures for the verses are still good, even if the vocals themselves are shaky at best and outright bored at worst, and the lyricism is generally alright. The energy emanating off of this album still makes for a fun time, and I did slowly accept that his voice was just kinda like that. I do think the opening track is a mediocre tonesetter, but everything afterward (save for “It’s The Truth”, which is just kinda boring) is honestly pretty good, or at least, acceptably fun. If the biggest sin here is a mediocre vocalist who sounds like what would really happen if a band needed to train a short-term replacement off the street in a Disney movie, while the rest of the band sounds fucking great, then it’s not that bad of an album. The floor here is definitely a 3; maybe a 2 if you’re extremely annoyed by his voice. I’m at a 4, and I think it earns it.

I’m at a 5.

I don’t have that much to say, thankfully. I’d heard of “Buena Vista Social Club” as a title before listening to this, but I’d never heard the album or really knew what it was all about. It’s just a revival of the Cuban music of the 1940s, done with modern instrumentation & made by Cuban locals with a passion for the craft. Their love for this, and their genuine desire to share it with the world, clearly comes through on this album, and their energy is infectious. There’s a quote from a Guardian article, cited for an essay noting this album’s inclusion into the Library of Congress, calling this “the album that collapsed the cold war wall between Cuba and the west”. That feels like a pretty apt description.

There is one minor critique I have, but it’s probably related to how Cuban songs / “classical standards” were just composed back then – I just think there’s a bit of repetition on a number of tracks. It didn’t bite me too badly, but “El carretero” was the one that got me the most, given that it’s just a slower track in general. Given that the soundscapes & the vocal harmonies (as well as the lyrical storytelling, to a degree) are the focal points of the album, it’s a very minor critique, but one that doesn’t matter that much in the long run. I do wish there were a few more fast-tempo tracks, but that’s just my own tastes speaking. Overall, it’s just a delightful album, and worthy of all the name-brand praise it gets. It’s maybe a little long at an hour, but given that I was up and moving when the time called for it, as well as sitting & vibing when the mood called for it, I’d say they did a great job of keeping me along for the ride, and capturing the emotions they wanted to on each track. I really enjoyed it, and I think it’s an easy 5. Thank goodness it’s on the list.