Reviews by guggmo

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

It’s really only because most of the tracks feel a little longer than they should, because otherwise, I’d be at a flat 5 without question; this was a REALLY nice album. It doesn’t do anything super special lyrically, but where it shines is pulling the most emotion out of the broad strokes the lyrics give, from both the vocals & the instrumentation. Mark Hollis is pretty good at this, giving each track a sort of gravitas reminiscent of Tears for Fears or some of Peter Gabriel’s solo work; he’s got a great control over the tone of each track, knowing when to switch between a more authoritative voice & a softer one when the moment calls for it.

Instrumentally, this album feels like a natural progression of what Phil Spector was sort of trying to do with the wall of sound, but mixed really nicely with the synth-driven sensibilities of 80s new wave; there are moments where it all feels a bit loud, yet the clarity of each instrument & synth isn’t sacrificed in those moments. It also helps that this uses a lot of acoustic / traditional instrumentation – the guitar on “I Don’t Believe in You”, the piano scattered throughout the album & the fantastic harmonica solo on “Living in Another World” are some of the standout parts for me. Each of the first 4 tracks layers itself really nicely, so it never feels like it comes out of nowhere, and they build up enough trust that when they do just get into it later in the album, it’s not as jarring as it could be.

Again, my only complaint here is some tracks losing their luster after too long – a lot of these could have been trimmed just a bit to pace the album quicker, and in the case of “April 5th”, I think it loses a sense of progression about halfway in, making the last half of that track feel like it’s spinning the wheels a lot. I guess “Chameleon Day” didn’t click for me that well, but its imagery of night vs day plays really nicely with “Give It Up” & “Time It’s Time” surrounding it, as one is about simply giving up on life & the other is about persevering through it.

All in all, it’s a well constructed album, and while it could be trimmed a little, it’s not that big of a deal for me – it’s a super enjoyable listen to the ears if nothing else, and I liked it a lot. A very easy bump up to a 5 for me, and I’m glad I finally bothered to listen to a Talk Talk album.

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

I’ve never heard of Harry Nilsson until listening to this, but as it turns out, apparently I have. Not from the chart-topper that is “Without You” (of which I need to hear the Mariah Carey cover), nor from “Jump into the Fire”, as I’ve made the grave mistake of never watching Goodfellas. It was goddamn “Coconut”. I like the song, don’t get me wrong, I’m just stunned that my once in a while epiphanies on this sort of thing went to the goofy comedy track this time around.

This is a pretty good album, and I’d say there’s no misses here, though it won’t go without a little bit of nitpicking on my part. I do think this album is a little heavy on covers, but it’s fine enough given that he bends the tracks towards his strengths – I do wish he had a few more original tracks here though. There’s a little bit of repetition throughout some tracks; not enough to be a big deal, given the energy the instrumentals bring on each track, but enough to poke at the ear a little bit (“Let the Good Times Roll” & the first 3 minutes of “Jump into the Fire” are guilty here). My biggest thing here is probably just how many times tracks end on a fadeout; I felt a little robbed at times of a bigger finish, but that’s just personal preference at that point.

All of that said, I wouldn’t be bumping this up to a 5 if I didn’t enjoy it for a reason – it’s just a catchy album that tackles a lot of styles & genres whilst evoking some Beatles-y sensibilities (apparently, they loved this guy), with great instrumentation & vocals throughout. They’re not all winners from a lyrical standpoint, but if I can give some love to “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” despite how ridiculous it is, who am I to judge the writing of something like “Down” or “Coconut”? I wish I had more to say, but it’s a breezy 35 minutes that’s worth a listen, and I liked it. At worst, it’s a 3 if you fucking HATE “Coconut”.

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

It’s not Bruce Springsteen’s best production, given how much this thing bites from the rock trends he missed out on between 1995 and 2002. It’s not Bruce Springsteen’s sharpest writing, but with the wounds of 9/11 pretty fresh, I can’t blame him for not digging into them too deeply, even for as much as he touches on it. It’s not Bruce Springsteen’s strongest album on the list.

It is, however, the perfect album for the moment, by a guy whose voice & thoughts seemed especially needed. The Wikipedia article for this album says that “Springsteen felt compelled to record The Rising when, in the aftermath of the attacks on September 11, 2001, a stranger in an adjacent vehicle rolled down his window and said: ‘We need you now’.” I can’t say that guy in the car was wrong – these tracks do feel needed. Yes, by 2025’s vision of the world, the sense of hope & perseverance present on a lot of these tracks are a bit washed away by the bitter taste of the U.S. military’s intervention in 2003 and beyond… but for July of 2002, these work, and they work rather well. They’re capturing emotions in broad enough strokes, yet just malleable enough to fit the situations of a lot of people who lost loved ones in the WTC, Pentagon, or Flight 93. Even without the context of the attacks casting a shadow on this album, most of them are written in such a way that they just work, saying the thoughts that some people might’ve been unable to express in light of any grief or tragedy.

I obviously have my complaints on the album – I think a number of tracks here are a little too “poppy” for Bruce’s general style & sensibilities (“Waitin’ on a Sunny Day” & “The Rising” come to mind). I think there’s a handful of tracks where going more acoustic would create a better sense of intimacy, pulling more emotions out of them, giving them a better impact (“Countin’ on a Miracle” & “You’re Missing”, in this case). Past that, I do think Bruce’s vocal twangs lean a little too much into the Toby Keith-esque style of country that was dominating the charts at the time, and while his vocals are never once bad, they just leave a weird taste in my mouth, yearning for some of the grittier tones of his 70s/80s stuff.

I will say, though, for as much as I’m sort of ragging on the production, I genuinely did enjoy a lot of these tracks. There’s certainly something cheesy to late 90s / early 2000s rock now, but hearing Bruce unabashedly go for it just worked in my brain. Don’t get me wrong, I think I would’ve preferred more of an updated yet familiar sound, ala David Bowie’s “The Next Day”, but going full throttle into the 21st century like this just feels fun.

I won’t blame anyone for going for a 3 or lower on this, because it is rather long, and it’s WAY different from anything I’m used to from Bruce Springsteen. However, it just clicked for me, and ultimately, I think it does what any good Bruce Springsteen album is supposed to do: evoke the imagery of the very best aspects of the country. Yes, that’s normally bookended with “whilst acknowledging the criticisms that come with it, and what we should be doing to fix it”, but for 2002, I’m not necessarily sure people needed to hear those criticisms. They just wanted a sense of togetherness, and Bruce provides it here without being overly patriotic. Never once is the flag held up high in the lyrics, nor is America portrayed as a bright shining beacon. It’s all based in a sense of community, like on the back to back tracks of “Worlds Apart” & “Let’s Be Friends (Skin to Skin)”. It’s extremely apparent on “My City of Ruins”, which works as a great closer.

I guess I’m at a 5 because this just clicked for me like that. It does feel weird, though, as it’s far from the highest of highs that is “Born to Run”, and while I think I still personally prefer “Born in the U.S.A.” over this, it probably does pass “Darkness on the Edge of Town” for me, for having a more contemporary / familiar sound, like the music I grew up on. It's definitely got a chance to go down in the future, but for now, I'm OK with the bump up to a 5.

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

Hard to say that much here, given the language barrier, the lack of any translations, & a general unfamiliarity with this style of music. It’s one of those albums where you either like it, or you don’t, and in my case, I was liking it until I didn’t. It never got bad, though; it simply lost its luster & got a little too stale for me.

I was at a 4 through the first 6 tracks of this album; there’s a sense of progression on each track, some good instrumental / vocal work, and even with the repetition present, the loops at least had a nice energy to them to keep them from feeling stale. They’re also, at an average, about 4:57 long, if you do that math. It wasn’t doing anything special, but it was at least fun to listen to – there’s a distinct line between a “good listen” and a “fun listen” for albums like this for me, where a good listen is technically sound, but not the most engaging, and a fun listen IS engaging.

It’s tracks 7 through 10 where this album takes a dip for me, simply into “good listen” territory, but to a really, REALLY unengaging degree. The repetition is more potent, the vocal work feels limited to a couple of lines followed by a vocal run for some “flair” that feels manufactured, and the sense of progression on each track is just lost. Those tracks average out about to 6:04 long, so even though it’s only about a minute longer on average, that’s a lot more measures of repetition that just add up to feel frustratingly incompatible, especially with how nicely the first 6 tracks felt for me. At least “Minuit” is really nice as the last track. I liked that one.

At the end of the day, I just think this album could’ve trimmed itself down, because 58 minutes of this will lead to a bit of burnout, especially with how many tracks go over 5 and a half minutes. At its best, this is super engaging music from Senegal, and I really do think it’s a soundscape & a style worth listening to. At its “worst”, though, it doesn’t do anything necessarily wrong, it just painfully loses its luster, making the album experience just kinda drag, at least to my ears. Someone who’s on a drive, or a run, or using this as ambient background noise without giving it the same sort of focused attention I did will probably really vibe with this. Hell, I probably need to listen to it that way. It’s not a bad album, and it’s certainly at least better than the dogshit that was “Haut de gamme”. For my ears, it’s a 3.5 that I’ll bump down to a 3, but it could pop itself back up to a 4 if these just catch me differently on another day.

I’m at a 5. Just a bit higher, really.

Not quite at the same level as “Hotel California”, but it didn’t need to be; this is just a great hybrid of country & rock, that leans a bit more into a Thin Lizzy or a ZZ Top style as opposed to just sort of biting the Rolling Stones. Of course, making all of those comparisons sort of undermines just how good the Eagles are as a band, and how much credit they rightfully deserve here. This is a great album off the jump – I definitely figured I would’ve heard “Take it Easy” at some point, and once that chorus hit, it immediately clicked.

I wasn’t prepared for the rest of the album to just click like that for me, though. I don’t want to write a paragraph on every track here, but there’s not a single miss here, as far as I’m concerned. The writing on this album is really strong, & both Glenn Frey & Don Henley deserve their credit for vocally bringing these tracks to life. However, it wouldn’t hit like that if not for the band’s performance. They’re on fire throughout this whole thing; every guitar solo, every percussive solo, and any chance for the soundscape to shine isn’t wasted, no matter what’s getting the spotlight. Honestly, adding Joe Walsh to the band by “Hotel California” feels like adding Kevin Durant to the Warriors all those years ago; it’s just not fair. Big shoutout to the banjo taking over the track on “Earlybird” and just killing it, by the way. It’s also perfectly paced, which feels like a nice addendum to how much I was hating on “Babylon” being the closing track to “American Pie”; “Tryin’” is how you do it, with the band going all out & and giving the album a real sense of finality. It’s not as good as “The Last Resort” was for “Hotel California”, but it still puts a nice bow on the whole thing. I guess the Eagles are pretty good at making full albums feel satisfying.

I’ve got no complaints, really. Scattered nitpicks, sure, but I don’t feel like typing any of them out, because I enjoyed this far too much to care. It’s a very, very good debut album, and after listening to these guys twice, I’m starting to see why that 70s Greatest Hits album of theirs is the best-selling album ever in the United States (supposedly; I kinda don’t buy it, honestly). Hopefully, we’ll get that second place album soon, but as far as this one goes, I’m at a very, very happy 5, if a bit higher.

I’m at a 5. Honestly, I’m a bit higher, though not quite at a 10.

Well, I’m very glad this isn’t just American Pie & then 28 minutes of tracks that also happen to be there. It’s American Pie and roughly 26 minutes of tracks that stand close enough to the shoulders of the giant that is the title track, keeping things entertaining & keeping the album at a consistently strong quality. My apologies to “Babylon”, it just feels sort of flat as the ending, especially when it could’ve closed perfectly on “The Grave”.

I’m really learning that 70s singer-songwriters are more my speed; gone is the verbosity & overt flowery language of the man that Don McLean calls a jester on this album, and in comes a group of artists inspired by the pacing & pop sensibilities of the Beatles & Elvis, while still channeling a lot of the sobering emotions that an artist like Bob Dylan brought out of these guys. It is a much nicer blend to my ears, and one that’s perhaps best personified by “American Pie”, which stands as an all-timer for a reason. I don’t think I need to use any extra words on it, because it’s that good.

How about the rest of them, then? “Till Tomorrow” is very James Taylor-y, and it just clicked really nicely for me, as a guitar-driven earnest ballad on love slipping away. “Vincent” is the other monster hit here, & it’s a brilliantly performed tribute to Vincent van Gogh. I’ve never heard it until today, but I deeply enjoyed it. “Crossroads” & “Winterwood” both tackle love as it relates to religion & reconnecting with it, but they’re written in such a way where you can see it as just a passionate love being a cure. I liked them both.

I think “Empty Chairs” is just beautiful. Simple as that, really. “Everybody Loves Me, Baby” is a pretty fun track about power dynamics & deconstructing the stature of emperors, kings, pharaohs, or any other imperialistic figures. I especially appreciate the way he sort of bites the structure of “American Pie” on it, just to be a bit meta. “Sister Fatima” is fine; I wish it were a bit more clear about the scammy nature of exploitative people in religion, but the sarcasm comes through well enough. “The Grave” is a fantastic track that honestly should’ve closed the album; it’s a very clear statement against the Vietnam War, and the imagery present between the muddy shithole this soldier died in & the idealistic grave his family makes for him at the end acts as a sobering image, and it would’ve been perfect to end on.

I don’t want to hate on “Babylon” that much, but it just feels like more of a transition track that should’ve been put between “Winterwood” & “Empty Chairs”, as opposed to an epilogue piece to “The Grave” and the overarching themes of “American Pie”. It’s a fine track, not bad at all, and it has a place somewhere in the album. It just shouldn’t have ended the entire thing, though I get the feeling ending on something religious was important to Don McLean.

Regardless, it’s a great, great album. A little emphasis towards the lyrics is needed here, since it is kind of just guitar-driven singer-songwriter stuff otherwise, but they’re all really well-written. It clicked wonderfully for me, and I’m glad the full album is on the list. It’s a very easy 5; a bit higher, really.

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

This is a fine album; it’s a look into 10 of the houses that exist on this hypothetical road known as 16 Lovers Lane. A lot of these guys don’t seem to be in love though, as plenty of tracks here deal with breakups, manipulation, some vague sense of peer pressure… honestly, it feels like only 2 or 3 houses here actually have proper lovers. Bit of irony, then.

It’s a good concept for an album, and I wish they stretched it out to really explore this hypothetical street more, and properly dig into a day in this single neighborhood. As it stands, it’s 10 tracks of varying quality that range from “very good” to “fine, but it didn’t click for me”, and that’s mainly why I’m bumping this down to a 3. There’s always something with a lot of these tracks – there’s ambiguous meanings to the lyrics, some abstract vocal structures, moments where the song doesn’t feel like it’s progressed from an instrumental standpoint, or just longer intros and outros that feel like they’re padding for time on an already somewhat short album. Having one of these doesn’t sink a track, nor does it ever really sink the album that badly, but they’re consistently present, and that builds up over time to make the full 37 minutes feel not only longer than it is, but less fulfilling. It just doesn’t feel like the album has a proper track to track progression, due to so many tracks sharing a similar tone or subject matter.

Of course, I’m emphasizing the negatives, but this is never a bad album. It’s the type of album where, despite its flaws, I genuinely considered giving it a 4 because it’s still got a nice charm to it, and for as consistently present as my “somethings” are, they don’t last THAT long in each track. They’re there long enough to be noticeable, but sometimes, I was still enjoying it regardless. There are great instrumental moments here, some fun vocals that feel like a guilt-free Morrissey, and some lyrics that are genuinely really touching, like on “Streets of Your Town” or “Dive for Your Memory”, which might be my favorite song on the album. In a way, I’m bumping this down to a 3 because a number of tracks & styles just didn’t click for my tastes. If someone wants to give this a 4 or a 5, I wouldn’t blame them, because I can hear it. It just didn’t fully work for me.

I’m at a 4.

I really like the approach this album goes for: sort of an MTV Unplugged vibe, given that these all seem to be recorded live outside of a studio, around just one microphone capturing everything. It leads to a much more intimate feel to each track, but without a crowd & a very minimalist approach to the instrumentation, the enjoyment of this album boils down to “How long can you withstand the style?”

That’s where I’m at a 4 – I love this style, but 52 minutes of it does eventually wear its welcome. The vocals are great, but they never really get into a higher, more emotionally-driven register, so her crooning, slower style feels far less effective by Track 12 than it does on the first 6 or 7 tracks. The instrumentation is great, but the minimalist approach feels less effective; this, however, was very easily avoidable had they just stuck to the added sounds of violins & steel guitars that they introduced on Tracks 5 and 6, but they never really use them to their full extent. It leaves very open gaps in the soundscape of each track that just feel empty for the sake of “ambience” that, again, loses its effectiveness. I can’t really speak to the lyrics, since a lot of these are covers, but I do wish they had chosen a few more tracks that leaned into the Americana side of country that I typically enjoy. That’s just personal preference, though.

However, for all of those complaints, it’s still a very nice album. Hell, it’s a really enjoyable listen – only a few tracks get that dry to the point of feeling boring, but in terms of the soundscape & overall mood of the album, the intimacy DOES feel really nice at first. I wish it found a way to keep up the mood throughout the entire album, but even when it starts to falter, these aren’t bad tracks. The album experience just sort of drags on, but they’re all enjoyable individually. If you’re the type of person who can enjoy the full 52 minutes without any complaints, then power to you. I think it’s a super unique recording, most of which I did like, and I can’t bring myself to go any lower than a 4. I feel like I need to listen to more of these guys.

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

Rap albums are the hardest to write reviews for, especially when you get every single solo album by a Wu-Tang member on the list before you get “Enter the Wu-Tang”. I can only really compare this to the other members of the group, but I think that feels sort of unfair in its own way. These guys have their own styles & philosophies, and even with Ghostface Killah acting as the Luigi to Raekwon’s Mario here, it still doesn’t feel right to compare this to Fishscale, Tical, or Liquid Swords.

With that said, this is probably my second favorite solo Wu-Tang project on the list behind Liquid Swords. It’s not an indictment on quality, just a matter of enjoyment, and I just enjoyed this one a lot. Hard to write about it though; when you’re in the zone with a rap album like this, it’s hard to write down any intricacies. It basically boils down to “how good was the flow, how good were the beats, and how good were the lyrics”, and in this case, the flow was great, the beats were pretty cool (if a little simple at times, lacking some of the flash on other Wu-adjacent stuff), and the lyricism does a pretty good job with storytelling, though it doesn’t really have as many cool one-liners as something like Tical or Liquid Swords.

If I have any complaints… it’s just a long one, you know? 18 tracks in 1995 is a tough ask, and I do feel like this album circles the bases on a few topics a few too many times. It’s a really fun listen, don’t get me wrong, but… I dunno, I think it could’ve been trimmed down a bit. Past that, there’s some lyrics on here that just feel really out of place 30 years later, as per the course, but even for its time, this is a little heavy on the homophobia, isn’t it? It’s honestly enough to make me consider dropping it a point, but I’m gonna give some level of grace here.

I do wish I could just hang it at a 4.5, but the entire stretch of “Glaciers of Ice” to “Wu-Gambinos” is simply too damn good to not give this a bump up. It clicked nicely for me, but I can also see an argument for this being one of the weaker solo Wu-Tang albums, especially if you just fucking hate Ghostface Killah for whatever reason, or if the production style doesn’t feel as tight. Hell, there are moments here where the “cool” mafia imagery of the Wu-Tang Clan can just feel a little bit yappy. For my tastes, I really enjoyed it, flaws and all – it’s a 4.5 that will just get the bump up to a 5, though if someone wants to bump it down, I wouldn’t blame them.

I’m at a 4.

Unique as hell for 1999, I’ll say that. This album feels innovative right off the top, in that it’s just that different from any of its contemporaries. In a lot of ways, this album feels like a time-shifted anomaly, one that does eventually stabilize itself as it goes through its 32 minute runtime, but an anomaly nonetheless. It’s a pretty fun anomaly though.

Honestly, I can’t really think of a good description for how this album sounds; the best thing I have is “the Go-Gos on a little bit of acid”, but that sort of undermines the amount of genres this thing kind of tackles – there’s some Dead Kennedys energy here, little bit of plunderphonics, some 60s-inspired production that sometimes hits on both a Sgt. Pepper’s vibe & a Velvet Underground track at the same time. However, if you listen to the songs themselves, instrumentally, it’s just consistently a bit off-kilter; the actual instruments feel like a blend of MIDI & real stuff, with samples thrown in at lower bitrates to accentuate how slightly off it is, and ultimately, for 1999, it’s just really inspired production that’s intoxicatingly strange. To my ears, it’s more reminiscent of how people perceive 1999 through a Y2K aesthetic in modern times, which makes it feel ahead of the curve & yet totally thematically fitting.

Like I said though, this does stabilize itself – the later tracks of this album don’t carry the same weird energy as the first half does, but they’re still fine regardless. I do wish the album ended on a higher note than “Les & Ray”, but there’s no shame in having a kind of tribute track close out any album. Genuinely, I’m just kind of surprised that this is from 1999, and I’m more surprised I haven’t heard of Le Tigre until now. This isn’t quite up my alley, but I think it’s still cool as hell. It’s a 4 for me, and I’m glad it’s on the list.

P.S.: I need Hayley Williams to cover “Let’s Run” immediately. Also, huge fan of that “Fuck Guiliani” line on “My My Metrocard”.

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

I do wish I could leave it at a 3.5 though, because this is a pretty enjoyable album, for the most part. Whenever it’s not *that* enjoyable though… boy, it’s just kinda dry. That dryness looms over a bit too much of the album for me to give it a bump up to a 4 – there’s just too many tracks that have sections that didn’t really grab me like that. In those drier moments, something just looms in the soundscape for a bit too long, whether it’s a sort of mediocre guitar solo, a vocal performance that doesn’t have the right level of conviction, or just a drum pattern that doesn’t really have the right kick to it.

Even when none of those are present, sometimes the tracks just didn’t really click for me, despite their best efforts, due to a general lack of presence from the band themselves. Take “The Human Beings” as an example – fun concept, good looping vocals, but when the instrumentation isn’t there to evolve the track and give it a sense of progression, it makes the track fall a bit short. Same goes for “The Magnificent Five”; totally fine track, but the soundscape hits a high point at the intro, and just sort of stabilizes afterward. Even on the best tracks on this album, there’s moments that feel a little weird, like “Antmusic” using its chorus as a bit of a crutch, “Ants Invasion” having some noisy guitar at the end, or “Jolly Roger” abruptly ending without any fun pirate-y guitar solo stuff.

Whenever it’s not dry, I like it, but I especially like it when these guys sort of bite Talking Heads a bit, which is making me realize that… maybe I just really want to listen to some Talking Heads, you know? Ultimately, this feels like a weird in-between of post-punk & new wave, leaning a little more towards post-punk’s vocals / structure while trying to integrate new wave soundscapes, but it’s not doing the most effective blend job, at least to my ears. I hear all the potential in the world though, and there are some great tracks here. Had these guys not broken up within a few years, I think they would’ve been able to ride the wave of a new wave a bit longer. As far as this album goes, it’s just not quite there for me. It could totally go up to a 4 someday if some of this clicks a little better, but for now, I’ll stay at a 3.5 bumped down to a 3.

I’m… at a 5, I think?

This is gonna be a weird one, because I’m still not ultimately sure. Let’s just say I had a unique experience with this album. Normally, I try to listen when my brain is fully attentive, fully awake, and not prone to any kind of “sleepiness” factor. So, for whatever reason, I decided to listen to this one slightly attentive, slightly awake, and decently prone to a “sleepiness” factor. The results are… kind of incredible, really.

Years ago, I read that Salvador Dali would sometimes sleep with a key in his hand, his head laid back, and whenever he did fall asleep, he would drop the key onto a metal plate, making a sound loud enough to wake him up pretty much instantly, and spark his creativity with whatever image his brain had conjured up in those fleeting moments. I’ve always thought the story was fair, but a bit exaggerated; surely, you can’t have the brain produce that sort of thing in fleeting moments of lucid awareness, right?

This album did that. It did that in a way that I’m not sure I fully comprehend, and I feel like I didn’t experience the album the “correct” way because of it. I’m also not sure that matters. I found myself closing my eyes to try and just feel the vibe of each track, for a lot of the early tracks. I do it decently often; there are portions of entire albums I’ve listened to with my eyes closed just to really enhance the emotions & the atmosphere. For this album, for whatever reason, instead of drifting into my focused zen state, I found myself melting into something decently close to sleep, especially starting around the end of Track 5 leading into Track 6, and from that point onward, I think I felt that sort of Dali effect click for me.

This album’s sound design works in such a way where if you do try to find that zen state, and get sort of lost in it like I did, there’s always something around the corner to sort of shake you out of it, whether it’s sound effects, vocal moments, percussive drops, extra instrumentation coming in hot to change the vibe of the track, and more. Those moments were my equivalent to Dali dropping his key and “waking up”, and my brain was conjuring up weird, weird images of things that didn’t exist, yet felt like they could exist in reality. My brain is more attuned to these sorts of soundscapes as video game music, so naturally, I was thinking of stuff like indie puzzle games, weird horror stuff, vague RPG overtones – realistically, a lot of this is because I played part of Chapter 3 of Deltarune earlier today, so my subconscious was working overtime, I think. Beyond that though, there were pixel explosions of stars, sudden jumpscares, perspective shifts… lots of stuff that feels distantly lost, but stuff that I wouldn’t have really thought up without this album’s soundscape as the backdrop to inspire it.

Of course, I never actually fell asleep. If I had fallen asleep, I wouldn’t have been writing notes about each track while listening, including bits & pieces of other stuff my brain came up with. Never revealing those, though. It’s the closest I’ve come to experiencing something like lucid dreaming, and while I’m not sure that’s the vibe this album was going for… it might be one hell of a tool for that sort of thing. So, yes, I suppose my recommendation for this album is to use it as a soundscape to dream to, once it gets into its more ambient stuff over the course of the last 36-ish minutes of the album. How about those first 27, though? I liked it; less easy to zone out to, but they’re all pretty good, especially with “Water From a Vine Leaf” as an opener.

Genuinely, I need to relisten to this when I’m not on the verge of falling asleep – realistically, though, I could’ve stopped at any time on this initial half-asleep listen, because I was very actively aware of it. I chose to stay in it, because I was enjoying it, perhaps a bit too much. There is a non-zero chance this album was designed for this sort of thing, and if so… good on you, William Orbit. I’m gonna give this a 5, as crazy as it feels. I do think I would’ve given it at least a 4 regardless, just because it kept me oddly captivated in a way similar to “Playing With Fire”, but in a more potent & truly ambient way. All I know is, I really liked listening to this one, via whatever strange reasons emerged.

P.S.: I promise I wasn’t on drugs. If anything, I think I probably just experienced what it’s like to be high for the first time, somehow via a potent tiredness, a strong imagination, & ambient music. Maybe that’s all it takes.

I’m at a 5.

I have a healthy appreciation for James Taylor, but as more of a two-hit wonder in my brain: “Fire and Rain” off of this album, & his cover of “You’ve Got A Friend” from its follow-up. I always figured I’d like the guy, and I knew he had a little more of a place in music than those two tracks, they’re just the ones that come to mind. Boy, am I glad this is on the list to finally kick my ass into listening to him: this was great. The first tracks here are really good, if a little more guitar-heavy off the top, but once “Steamroller Blues” opens up the soundscape to a new world of possibilities, this album rides into an even nicer stride. Hell, the final 5 tracks that end this thing are a fantastic stretch.

If I have any missteps here, it might just be that the “Oh, Susannah” cover feels out of place; it could’ve been cut, and it would make for a remarkable run from Steamroller Blues to the end of the album. Beyond that though, I really have no complaints. James Taylor’s vocals glide like silk on these tracks, adapting to the mood & tone of any track on a whim. Even though the guitar is his main anchor, they both blend wonderfully into the instrumentation this album throws in, especially on the funky section that ends the album on “Suite for 20 G”. Even when it’s just him & his guitar, it’s still captivating & malleable all the same; something like “Oh Baby, Don’t You Loose Your Lip on Me” strikes me as a sort of lo-fi Muddy Waters. His songwriting is great too; I especially want to give a nod to “Anywhere Like Heaven”, which just clicked wonderfully for me, but there’s some strong, strong lines throughout this whole thing.

It’s an extremely tight 32 minutes, and it says everything it wants to say & more. Again, outside of “Oh, Susannah” being here (which is just a personal preference more than anything), I think you can’t pace the album any better than that. I really enjoyed this, and I’m glad James Taylor is no longer a two-hit wonder in my brain. If it’s a little too bubbly at times, I can understand giving it a 3 or 4, but for my tastes, this is a very easy 5. I feel like I gotta listen to the follow-up now, even if it’s not on the list.

I’m at a 5.

Obviously, I suspect that the randomizer was just a tad bit rigged in light of Brian Wilson’s death, but even a few days ago, when I was looking back at the bands we had gotten so far, it struck me as a surprise we’d only gotten the Beach Boys once so far, especially knowing that this album would be coming down the pipeline eventually. “Surf’s Up” clicked with me really nicely, so I figured if this one was the one with the massive acclaim, it would also hit like that.

Yeah… yeah, it did. It’s not at a 10 level for me, which feels a little disappointing, but there’s not a single bad track here – it is every bit as good as it’s been advertised & more. I reserve the big 10 for whenever something just hits me at the deeper levels, or when my brain especially clicks to the point of pure disbelief. I never got there with this one on a first listen, but I’ll be damned if I don’t get there someday, because this is immediately entering the rotation. It’s my first time listening to this album in full; it’s my first time hearing a lot of these tracks, really. Obviously, “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” is the monster commercial hit, but past that, the rest of the album was a mystery to me.

Generally, when my brain still thinks of The Beach Boys, it conjures up the poppier stuff, like “Surfin’ U.S.A.” or “Good Vibrations”, & even after listening to Surf’s Up a few times, my brain still just doesn’t connect the wires. That said, this is the perfect antithesis to that poppier stuff – not necessarily in the instrumentation, but just in the delivery & lyricism. A lot of these tracks are imbued with sadness, indicative of something deeper & more melancholy. Even for something like “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”, my brain only realized the slight level of sarcasm present throughout the track on this listen. Hell, apparently “God Only Knows” is one of the first pop tracks to evoke the word “God” in that sense, ignoring spirituals & whatnot. The depth that this album presents itself with is what gives this album its place in musical history – if you don’t get here, you probably don’t get to the deeper, richer stuff that would slowly emerge from both the Beach Boys, The Beatles, and several others in an “iron sharpening iron” sense. Sgt. Pepper’s is apparently pretty directly inspired by this album. Hell, you probably don’t get to something as eternal as “Songs in the Key of Life”, but we’ll get to that when it comes up.

I wish I could type more in-depth here, but I just don’t think I can really type up a storm about the tracks themselves. The compositions, lyricism & delivery will leave far more of an impact than whatever I might write. It’s a damn good album, and everyone in the band deserves all the credit in the world for this one, even Mike Love, as begrudgingly as I have to give it to him. Brian Wilson, though… flowers, balloons, slices of cake, stacks of cash, piles of presents; the whole 9 yards, really. His production work on this, in addition to his writing & instrumental work, is remarkably good. Hell, even the mono mix doesn’t feel like mono at times, managing to pull off a better “wall of sound” effect than Phil Spector did on basically everything I’ve heard the guy touch.

So, yes, R.I.P. to Brian Wilson, and let this album live on forever as a sort of magnum opus for the Beach Boys. It’s a very easy 5, and one day, it’ll probably click in THAT sense where I can say “easy, easy 10”. An excellent album, and a cornerstone piece of music.

I’m at a slightly generous 3.

It’s just a fascinating listen, really. How compelling can you make repetition sound, and how far can you push that luck with your listener until they give up on you? Further more, can you get them back if they ever do give up?

I have answers to all of these questions, I think: Can you make repetition sound compelling? Yes, as long as your tracks aren’t too long. This album has a number of tracks that are a bit too long. However, when it’s not that long, some sort of hypnotic vibe washes over, where the brain is listening & engaged, but not actively comprehending, and that’s the sweet spot for making repetition sound compelling. When this album finds that sweet spot, no matter how awkward the soundscape might be (especially proven by “Suicide”), it’s a good spot to be in, as long as you can stay there. Eventually, these tracks do sort of push you away from that sweet spot, but when you’re in it, it’s just… nice. I can’t totally explain how.

So, how far can you push that luck with your listener? I’d say about 5 minutes into “How Does It Feel”, honestly. “Honey” is a fine start with some weird vocal effects going that distract heavily from the instrumentation, “Come Down Softly to My Soul” is a solid (though non-evolving and sort of bland) “vibes” track, but it’s “How Does It Feel” that feels like the lowest point of the album, really. It is 8 minutes of our little band here trying really, really hard to find a sweet spot, with a slower drip feed of music than a modern Nintendo service. It is really hard to not feel utterly down on this album after that. “I Believe It” doesn’t help either; same sort of thing as Track 2 where the vibes are there, but just sort of bland.

So… when did they get me back? Honestly, just a sonically interesting guitar sound on “Revolution” was the outstretched hand I needed to at least hear them out the rest of the way, and from that point onward, the album settled into something that’s not necessarily “better”, just executed in a far more compelling way. “Let Me Down Gently” gives big Eno vibes, “So Hot (Wash Away All of My Tears)” is just a more sonically compelling version of “I Believe It” & “Come Down Softly”, and… boy, let’s talk about “Suicide”.

There is not a single world in which that track should have worked. Honestly, it loses its steam right before the end, so in a way, it didn’t really work. Yet, to my ears, it did find that weird, compelling sweet spot. I can’t describe it; it has all the aspects of a repetitive, endless droning mess that I might normally rip on a track for, but for whatever reason… it just clicked. The lead guitar melodies aren’t doing anything special, they’re just layered and slowly evolving in a way that feels like lo-fi white noise, anchored by my own real knock on the track, which is that damn repetitive backing guitar riff. It’s somehow both hypnotic and frustrating at the same time – I don’t know how it worked, and maybe if I weren’t listening with headphones in, I would’ve despised it. However, I liked it.

“Lord Can You Hear Me” is nice. Feels sort of Nirvana-y, really. It feels like a nice, calmer endpoint after the 11 minutes of “Suicide”. Honestly, I wish it were a little longer just to let those horns near the end have a little more shine. As a whole package then, it’s a 3. A fascinating listen – it somehow kinda succeeds at what it’s trying to do as a sort of ambient psychedelic/shoegaze album, but the execution is all over the place for the first half of the album. Even once it finally settles into a more compelling spot for the second half, it’s still far from perfect. However, I think I admire it enough to give it a 3, though that’s the ceiling for me. Realistically, I’m probably closer to a 2.5, but I don’t think this is THAT bad to warrant a 2. If someone else does, I wouldn’t blame them though. It’s a strange one, but I think it has a place on the list in its own weird, niche-y way. Good job to Spacemen 3, I guess.

I’m at a 4, though it does feel more like a 4.5 if you count that cover of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”.

Takes a little bit for this album to fully reveal itself, but once it gets going, it finds a tonally weird yet mesmerizing groove that can’t really be stopped: this is a strange, strange mixture of a lot of styles that somehow really works. We have a singer who sounds like Bjork, doing her best attempts to sound like David Byrne at times, to instrumentation that feels like a blend of R.E.M., Talking Heads, and the Go-Gos, all with a little bit of a reggae-infused flair that channels some of Bob Marley’s weirder, more experimental stuff.

That first track, though… oof. Just a bad tonesetter, really. Once “Shoplifting” hit, and revealed this album as a sort of jack of all trades one, with a sort of ska / hip-hop vibe permeating a number of the tracks, that’s where the album starts to shine. It’s not perfect, with a few harsher instrumentals or some more boring vocal parts, but it just sort of sucked me in. Seriously, the overall flow of the album finds a really nice pace that’s easier to get lost in, without coming across as too lo-fi or too ambient. I can’t describe it that well, given how much I just ended up vibing & grooving around, but if you hear it, you’ll just get it.

It’s a 4 for me – I wish I could give a better “analysis” of sorts, but I think the music speaks for itself. It’s gonna have to speak for me in this case, because I can’t find the proper words other than all the comparisons I made up top. It’s worth a listen to me, and I just really ended up liking it.

P.S.: That cover of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” feels YEARS ahead of schedule. It should’ve been on the main tracklist.

I’m at a 5. It’s probably just a little higher.

This album is not “Different Class 2”, nor is it ever trying to be. It’s a concept album (or at least, one to my ears) about exploring the desperate search for fame, and using it as a crutch & a substitute for happiness. It’s a little stretchy, but I think there’s a general plot here.

“The Fear” is sort of a prologue, spoken in the reflective, moody aftermath of all that’s about to happen. The lyrics spell out the core theme of the album, really: “This is the sound of someone losing the plot / Making out that they're okay when they're not”.

“Dishes” is where we meet our protagonist, which appears to be a characterization of our lead singer, Jarvis Cocker. He just wants to be something more than the guy who does the dishes & loves his wife, even if he tries to hold it all in. Just listen to the performance; the vocals & instrumentation open up a lot more as the vague frustration grows & his calmness cracks. It’s a really neat touch that frames the song as a man who’s just generally stuck in a rut and wants nothing more than to leave it.

“Party Hard” might seem jarring at first, but I love the dichotomy between the heavier guitar and his softer, buried vocals. It makes it feel like a mourning, desperate man lamenting that he can’t really have “fun” without resorting to other stuff, all amidst the buzz of a larger party, and that imagery feels really striking.

“Help The Aged” is sort of a last ditch effort to stick to the principles he was trying to espouse on “Dishes”, but not before coming to a sort of flawed realization that death comes to us all – instead of taking it to mean that he should appreciate what he has & just roll with it, or to just make steps to improve himself, he takes it in the belief that he has to totally change his image to achieve the sense of “something more” he’s desiring.

So, naturally, he becomes a porn star on “This is Hardcore”. Bit of a jump, but it’s a rather intentionally desperate jump. I love the way the orchestration gives the whole track some seedier & more sinister undertones. Whatever the case, his gambit seems to work. “TV Movie” is the immediate aftermath of this fame; he’s alone now. His wife isn’t there (possibly a divorce), and he’s just lamenting how dry life is without her. “A Little Soul” is him sort of crashing out to his son, realizing just how badly he’s coming across as a father & pleading with him not to end up the same way.

“I’m A Man” is him trying to bounce back from that moment of vulnerability, and trying to tell himself that he is indeed still a man, still trying to get booked, and still sort of grasping for that same level of fame he had after the porn tape. It’s just self-affirmations that feel like they’re going wrong, really.

Does “Seductive Barry” need to be 8 minutes? No, probably not – as an album track, I think about 3-4 minutes of it would be snappier & better paced. Does it work as an 8 minute track? Yeah, I’d say so – there’s an excruciating sense of being stuck in the room with the guy & the superstar girl he’s (possibly) in the room with, fantasy or otherwise, sort of invading whatever moment they’re having. That invasion of privacy grows as the track continues to go longer & longer. It’s uncomfortable, but that discomfort is very intentional, and it sort of exposes the awkwardness of “fame”. The foreplay all feels rehearsed, with any vague charisma only brought on by stature in the industry. There’s not a real spark here, so the “fakeness” of our main character gets brought into the forefront more & more. In that sense, I like the track. Still too long though. Shoutout to Neneh Cherry, by the way.

“Sylvia” is finally the epiphany point for J.C., as he finally realizes that he looks like any other vapid face in the crowd nowadays, using women (who all look like what I’m assuming to be his ex-wife, Sylvia) as a form of jewelry to make himself look better, and his self-worth is utterly diminished, even with the level of fame he’s seemingly rebounded to. It’s an apology track, and it’s the sort of fall to grace he really needs. “Glory Days” (not a Springsteen cover, though thematically similar) is the aftermath of that epiphany, really expounding on just how badly fame has changed him, reverting back to his simpler self, trying to make amends with some of the people he left behind.

“The Day After The Revolution” is the result of that public attempt to make amends, with the rest of the world sort of joining in his rebirth and rejecting the whims of fame. Is it his dream? I dunno, maybe. He mentions sleeping in on “Glory Days”, and this song starts with him unable to fall asleep in his dusty little room. Great vocal performance on this one, as he displays a real sense of liberation. As a way to end the album, it works really well.

“Like A Friend” is apparently a bonus track, but I think it still thematically works within the album; you could put it between “This is Hardcore” & “TV Movie”, since it can very easily be read as a man full of ego after finding his fame, treating his wife like nothing more than a resident in HIS home, and in HIS world. It could also go right between “Seductive Barry” & “Sylvia”, since it can just as easily be read as him realizing how fake this entire relationship is, frustrated at his own willingness to play along for the sake of a good time.

In case it wasn’t obvious, I’m just really enthralled by this as a project. If you somehow haven’t heard it, go listen. It’s a damn good album, and it explores its themes really well, blending the overall vision with some really well-performed vocals (emphasis on “performed”, like an actor), & a great job from the band, especially on the percussion & guitar work, both capturing the mood on every track here. If you just don’t see a plot, or you’re actively not seeing a throughline, then I can understand giving this a lower rating. For my tastes, and for my possibly stretchy brain, I think this pretty handily earns a 5. Great job, Pulp.

I’m at a 4.

I didn’t know Randy Newman was on this list at all, because like many people, he’s just kind of been the Disney song guy to me. Color me decently impressed – he’s got some good witty tracks on this album, a lot of which is baked with Twain-esque sarcasm, delivered in a very intentionally dry way, to make it bite that much more. This is a pretty lyrically driven album, as the instrumentals themselves stay pretty soft & out of the way, so as to let his vocals & lyrics stand out more. It’s an approach that works & it’s an approach that I really like.

It’s also an approach that just sort of has a ceiling, but thankfully, this album hits that ceiling right as it finishes up – a track like “God’s Song” feels like a natural conclusion, and as a structured album, this has a pretty good start & a pretty good finish. If someone felt inclined to give this a 5, I wouldn’t blame them. Why am I at a 4 then? I dunno, I think it’s just a little too lo-fi for my tastes. I hesitate to use the Bob Dylan card here, but he at least knew that audiences need a little something to hook onto past just his words, and Randy Newman only really offers that hook around… oh, 60 to 70% of the time, at least to my ears.

Hence, the 4. Realistically, probably more of a 3.5 bumped up to a 4. It is definitely an album where you have to really hone in on the lyrics to get the extent of it, so I can understand why someone might give it a 2 or 3 if it’s not their cup of tea. It just clicked for me, what can I say?

I’m at a 4.

This is our fifth Elvis Costello album, so I’m running out of words to really say about the guy. If you’ve heard “My Aim Is True”, “This Year’s Model”, or “Imperial Bedroom”, then this is generally more of the same, with a little more of a pop lean as opposed to the sort of new wave-y stuff that was more prevalent on the former two.

Seriously, I can’t think of anything more to say: an Elvis Costello album at this point feels like a pretty nice slice of pizza. It’s some fine rock music that generally hits pretty well, with a few tracks that just… don’t. This is a totally competent 40 minute album that never really had a bad track, thankfully. If someone wanted to give this a 5, I wouldn’t even blame them. To my ears, there’s just a couple of mediocre tracks, some flatter instrumentals, a less engaged vocal performance at times, & one baffling (if historically relevant, I suppose) use of the N-word as it relates to Northern Ireland’s struggles around this time. I won’t defend it, but I don’t think I have enough historical knowledge to really indict the guy for it. Someone else can tear into him if they want, it just makes “Oliver’s Army” a really awkward listen otherwise.

There are a few really standout tracks to me: “Party Girl”, “Goon Squad”, & “(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding” are my highlights here. “Oliver’s Army” would be there too, but… y’know. I do think about 9 of the 13 tracks have some really nice moments within each of them – “Big Boys,” “Green Shirt”, “Chemistry Class” & “Two Little Hitlers” are the ones that didn’t click for me, and even then, they’re not bad, they’re just flatter & don’t have anything that really perk the ears up past a passive listen.

I got nothing more to add: good instrumentals from the Attractions, fine vocals from Elvis, and some solid songwriting for a pretty solid 40 minutes. Hence, a 4, but a recommended 4.

P.S.: I like Elvis Costello, but I’m more just surprised that he has 6 albums on the list when it feels like you could really just get away with “My Aim Is True” & “Next Year’s Model” and be done with it.

I’m at a 10. I feel like I’m floating.

Just unbelievable, really. I’m too pressed for time to write anything that long, but I think if you take Ray Charles, some deeply reworked country songs, & an orchestra that perfectly compliments the natural charisma that he displays throughout this album, then you have the recipe for a masterpiece.

Genuinely, I’m stunned to the point of speechlessness. I truly cannot believe this is from 1962, and I can’t believe how fucking crisp the 2024 remasters are on Spotify. This is our first Ray Charles album, and while I had a pretty damn healthy respect for the guy, I’ve never listened to one of his full albums like this. I’m aware of his hits, but they couldn’t have prepared me for this album. Far from it – Ray Charles feels like he’s singing these straight from his soul, and that’s the sort of mixture of total zen & true passion that you can only tap into a handful of times, in the most magical moments. Somehow, I think Ray Charles pulls it out on this album for almost all of the 12 tracks. Granted, that might just be because I fully closed my eyes and got absolutely lost in each track, but I think that’s the best way to listen to this album. The lyrics are a helpful enough guide, sure, but for this one, just let them go. Ray Charles will take the brain to places that feel like they’re a heartbeat away, if you allow him to take you there.

I truly can’t explain what I felt while listening to this – the closest comparison I have is when we got “Lady Soul” by Aretha Franklin, and even then, this just felt different. It’s an easy, easy 10. Ray Charles might just be magic, man.