Reviews by guggmo

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

Yeah, that’s a lot different from Tago Mago, and a bit of a middle ground between that album’s noisy chaos & the vague plunderphonic-y approach to Movies. This is way closer to an instrumental album, with the vocals/lyrics having a really minimal presence, mainly used to give some texture. I think it’s an approach that works; this is more traditional than anything Can-adjacent we’ve gotten so far, so the “unique” factors are stripped away in favor of more ambient sound design and ever-growing layers of instruments on each track.

So, much like a Cocteau Twins album, I suppose my analyses really boil down to “it sounds really good, but sometimes it’s a little bland”. I don’t have the ear to critique the technical aspects of some of the more stunning drum or guitar solos here, but I can tell you that they’re always interesting, at the very, very least. I didn’t give the same space to the lyrics/vocals as I normally would, but they’re fine, I suppose. The sound design works really well for some of the more “real world” aspects of the album, mainly in the city/metro stuff, and I think they enhance the tracks well.

Really, I have no major complaints about the content of each track, just a minor one that really bites throughout the whole thing: this album really spins its wheels on its solos. They all go just a little bit long, to the point where the allure starts to fade, though it never gets to a point where it totally loses its shine. The space in between those solos is filled really nicely, and the solos themselves hit like crack when they first pop in… but they do go just a little long. It’s really apparent on “Bel Air”, which is a 20 minute track that could’ve probably been cut down to like, 15 or 16 minutes if some of that wheel-spinning got trimmed. I love it as a finale, and I think it stays engaging throughout, but it’s not as engaging as it could be.

That’s basically why I’m at a 4.5, and not a flat 5, though I do think I wouldn’t blame anyone for going down to a 4 or even a 3 because of that. It’s valid if you’re not that captivated by these soundscapes, as there is a bit of homogeneity to the instruments that also sort of bites throughout the album. It didn’t ever really get to a “first minute-y” critique for me, but it does become noticeable eventually. One’s ability to tolerate or ignore that is what’ll set the tone for a score here, and for my tastes, I think I tolerated it enough here that it never became a big issue. Overall, I liked this – not the breeziest 40 minutes, but a pretty darn good 40 minutes all the same, hence the bump up to a 5.

That’s a pretty damn easy 5.

This was originally released as “The Stranglers IV”, which is really, really funny for a debut album. With a sense of humor like that, thank goodness these guys have the songwriting chops & musical brains to match it. This is 40 minutes that very nicely bridges the gap between the incoming heavy synth work of 80s new wave, and the post-punk sensibilities of the first 3 Talking Heads albums, made all the more impressive by the fact that this is from 1977, when Talking Heads made their debut.

In case it wasn’t obvious, I’m talking about the organ. That organ is the star of the show here, and a great anchor that separates them from some of the contemporaries of their time. The way it’s used here is immediately reminiscent of arcade games & a hint of a “futuristic” vibe, but it doesn’t overwhelm the soundscape at any point, acting less like a Kraftwerk instrument and just as a substitute for another electric guitar. There are moments where it bears down on these tracks and sets itself as the dominant instrument, but the mixing leaves all the room in the world for the guitars, drums, and vocals to shine.

Speaking of the vocals, they’re really good here; not because of some overwhelming ability to sing, but in how perfectly they just melt into the instrumentation. The fact that he sounds really nice, with just a bit of a blend between David Byrne & Michael Stipe (at least to my ears) helps a lot. Lyrically, I think this album finds a really nice balance between being earnest and being funny, which is a big positive, as this album never takes itself too seriously, but it does treat each song with a gravitas that keeps everything honest. It helps the instrumental breaks on a lot of these tracks fly by faster, because it’s already set the tone of a “just have fun and vibe out” track almost every time.

I just really enjoyed this one; it’s a super breezy 40 minutes that never once gets boring or stale, at least for my tastes. Sometimes, it just has to sound that damn good, and this one did. Hence, a really easy 5, and a big recommendation.

I’m at a 10.

This is our group’s 500th album, and I truly cannot think of a better one to get. Obviously, some level of personal bias would have adored to get, say, “Thriller” or “Songs in the Key of Life”, but this feels like the perfect album at the perfect time, and I’m so, so very grateful that the randomizer has dropped this one to be the big halfway mark. Going in, I knew it was the one with “Fast Car”, and that’s really about it. Tracy Chapman’s entire legacy is made by that song alone. Very rarely can you call something a “perfect track”, but if there ever was one, “Fast Car” is that. It’s transcendentally good. With that said, the rest of the album is absolutely spectacular.

As far as my ability to write anything that can do any of these songs the justice they deserve, I don't think I can do it at an individual level. Frankly, you could probably write an entire essay about each track on this album, and it would be a fascinating read. I do, however, have broad strokes – I think the social messaging present throughout this album consists of some of the most sadly prescient lyrics I’ve ever heard, made all the worse by the fact that we haven’t really done a damn thing about it for 37 years. Perhaps it’s those political undertones that leave me somewhat wordless, as I think Tracy Chapman presents them here in such a clear & digestible way – these are really easy to understand, & these are songs that were so desperately needed in 1988 that it makes this album’s popularity just as easy to understand. It also makes the current state of everything in 2025 all the more baffling, as we’ve strayed far, far beyond the empathy and hope this album tries to portray, even in its most grieving moments.

As far as the instrumentation goes, I have positive comparisons; lots of R.E.M.-esque soundscapes, hints of Matchbox 20, Bob Marley, and oddly, Peter Gabriel, especially on “Mountains o’ Things”. I think these are perfect types of soft soundscapes to let the lyricism shine through, perhaps at its brightest on a purely acapella track like “Behind the Wall”, or the brilliantly defiant closer that is “For You”. It’s the exact sort of style that I tend to gravitate towards for heavier albums like this, and I love every track’s instrumentation here because of it (though perhaps there could’ve been just a hint more to “She’s Got Her Ticket”).

Those are my broad strokes though, and my broad strokes aren’t able to paint the picture this album so clearly lays out. I can’t do it justice; you just have to listen to it for yourself. I’ll grant this, as a sort of concedement – I do think if you listen to this without giving the lyrics their due, then this will not hit in the same way. Hell, if you listen to this without the right amount of empathy, it’ll feel like empty platitudes for worst-case scenarios, but that’s the sort of defeatism that this album tries to push back against. That’s literally the entire point of “Fast Car”. At the very worst, I think this album has the floor of a 4, and I can totally understand why. As far as my tastes goes, it has truly everything that I could want in an album, and I’m at a 10 for that very reason. It’s 36 minutes of socially conscious brilliance, and I truly can’t believe I haven’t given Tracy Chapman the full extent of her flowers until now. It really is the perfect way to mark the halfway point.

I can’t wait to get some awful bullshit tomorrow.

Eh, fuck it. I’m at a 5.

The WarioWare of albums, if you will, given the rapidfire pace – it’s the shortest one in the entire list at just 15 minutes, yet it somehow manages to pack in everything it wants to say as concisely as possible throughout its 14 tracks. It’s not like these are poorly written tracks either; save for one use of the F-slur on track 2 (it was 1980, so I get it, but still), these are all competent tracks that generally have something to say, and get their points across well enough. Special shoutout to the prescience of “Paid Vacation”, by the way.

Of course, it’d be stupid to focus on this one solely for the lyrics or vocals, because while they’re there, they’re just a way for the instrumentation to come in red hot as a motherfucker & do some bullshit that absolutely nobody else was doing in 1980. Sure, the Sex Pistols did their whole thing in 1977, but that at least stayed within a semblance of the rock/metal music of its time. For 1980, this is taking Johnny Rotten’s core philosophy and putting it on a treadmill going about 2.5 times as fast. Even with the Dead Kennedys album we got, which went at a breakneck pace, this is even faster. It feels way, way closer to the sort of insanity that would go more “mainstream” circa the early 2000s, or at the very least, the sort of thing my brain associates with manic Newgrounds animations or early YouTube AMVs.

It’s not an all-time great album or anything, but it’s a kickass 15 minutes that pulls no punches and does exactly what it sets out to do. It’s dumb goofy fun hardcore punk that spits on any form of musicality that came before it, in the best way possible. I’m very glad it’s on the list, because it does feel like it’s influential to some degree. Realistically, it’s probably actually just a 4, at the very most, but from the fucking vibes alone and how easy it to just rock out to this shit, I’d be selling myself short to not give this a 5.

Anyone who gave this a 1 is lame as hell.

I’m at a 3.

A tale of two sides, really – I found myself utterly baffled by the first half of the album. I thought it had no real consistency, I thought the lyricism was strange, I thought the instrumentation was fine enough (if a bit overmixed, overblown & sort of cacophonic), and as a whole, I just generally didn’t grasp onto a “modus operandi” for the album. Those first 5 tracks, even after a re-listen where they sort of clicked more, are a weird, artsy, fully competent 2.5 that I think just didn’t quite grab me in the sort of avant-garde way it was going for.

The back half of the album is a solid, solid 3.5, that actually leans into the “post-punk meets country” vibe that I thought the full album would be going for. There’s some positive comparisons to the Pogues in here, some stronger lyricism/melodies, and just a general nicer blend of instrumentation (and strangely enough, better audio fidelity) that makes for a nice enough set of tracks. They’re not *great,* but they’re pretty good, and I enjoyed them, especially on Flitcraft, Abernant 1984/5, & Last Dance. Lost Highway is fine, but the abrupt fadeout sort of feels rushed and leaves the track “unfinished” to the ears.

Obviously, that balances out to a 3. I feel like I need to listen to this album starting from Flitcraft, before looping around and ending on the baffling tones of “Psycho Cupid”, to see if that would make the progression of the album flow better… but I don’t want to take away from their original intent and vision. I can genuinely see both sides of the coin on this one – there’s an argument to be made for as high as a 5, and one to be made for as low as a 1, and somehow, they’d both probably be valid. I’m split on that difference, hence a 3, though I think that’s the ceiling for my own personal tastes. It’s not a bad album, just a strange, strange album. Maybe it’ll fully click one day.

P.S.: The book says the following about this album:

“The Mekons are one of the UK's most brilliant and undervalued groups. Formed as a loose collective in Leeds in 1977 when they started messing around with the Gang Of Four's equipment, they released a couple of chaotic LPs (plus single "Never Been In A Riot," directed at The Clash) and then took a sabbatical. Energized by the UK miners' strike of 1984 to '85, the band (with original members Jon Langford and Tom Greenhalgh) re-emerged with Fear And Whiskey, lauded by many as the best album of the decade.”

I would love to meet the “many” here, because I think you have to be a musical freak to call this the best album of the 1980s. Maybe they're onto something, I dunno.

I’m at a 5.

Words escape me here – that was a 40 minute ride through some noisy, controlled chaos, and I loved basically everything about it. There’s a chance I’m gaslighting myself into liking another “artsy” album just for being different, but in this case, I think there’s a genuine case to be made in calling this a progenitor of heavy metal, shoegaze, industrial, & punk rock. For 1968, going all in on using feedback and overblown stuff as a storytelling device & an intentional instrumentation choice feels kind of revolutionary, especially so on the 17-minute adventure that is “Sister Ray”. By modern standards (& arguably, even by the early-mid 70s), this general style has been played to death, and gotten louder & screechier. As such, this album doesn’t sound as crazy to the ears as it probably did back then. We’re literally just a year after Sgt. Pepper’s, so something like this popping up from that band with the banana on the cover must’ve been jarring as hell.

I’ve heard noisier & stranger stuff on the list though, so something like this where the musicality is still pretty intact throughout the whole thing makes it all feel normal by comparison. There’s good storytelling throughout this thing, some great guitar riffs, some maddening percussion, and enough of a vocal presence to keep the 40 minute runtime flowing really well. It’s abrasive as hell, but that’s why I like it. It’s definitely not an album for everyone, and I think that even for me, it would’ve been too much a while ago. I really don’t know what else to say – I think this is an album best experienced by just listening to it and letting the brain go nuts. I’m at a 5, but I totally understand why it might be a 3 or even a 2 for someone else.

P.S.: Shoutout to “The Gift” for being the very first “Subway Surfers-core” track ever put to tape.

Hell has possibly frozen over: I’m at a 4.5 that I’m going to bump up to a 5.

Somehow, someway, Bob Dylan has done it. Granted, the last time my group got an album from him was 428 albums ago, so I’ve heard a lot of fucking music since then that’s perhaps reshaped my approach to listening to someone like Bob Dylan. My brain feels way more attuned to understanding the more flowery poetic language from the folk music of the 60s, thanks to listening to way more albums from the era. Hell, even when we got those albums, I gave them a 3.5 & a 4, so it’s not like I hated the guy.

Coming back to some of these songs a year later, a lot of them have clicked more nicely in terms of my ability to interpret them, and that added skill adds a bit of depth to both sides of this performance. As far as the first side goes, I think the intimacy of Bob Dylan, his harmonica, and his guitar, to a fully silent crowd, hung up on his every word, all there to witness his poetry… there’s something really, really cool about that. It’s very easy to picture in the mind too, so closing the eyes to imagine being there adds a lot to the atmosphere. Is it sort of goofy? Yeah, of course – Bob Dylan’s vocals in a fully acoustic setting are more exposed, more raw, and more prone to the shaky flaws that other people were motivated to parody in the many many years since. For some reason, though, I found that open-air atmosphere to feel vulnerable & endearing. Combine that with a good tracklist, and I really found myself enjoying the first half.

Of course, for my tastes, the electric half is where this album shines; nowadays, there’s something silly about the idea of “tainting” folk music by giving it a rock & roll lean, but I guess it was something to be heckled and jeered for back then. Bob’s backing band does a great job throughout the whole set, and by today’s standards, they’re not doing anything THAT crazy. Hell, even for 1966, this is just one year before psychedelic rock came into the mainstream at a higher level. In terms of albums we’ve gotten on the list, there’s albums from The Byrds, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, the Velvet Underground, & of course, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, all released in 1967. Bob Dylan’s just opening the door at this point, really. As a whole, it’s not like he’s sacrificing that much – a lot of the storytelling on the electric side of the album is still there & present, and his vocals honestly sound pretty good with the heavier tones of the band covering up the shaky flaws in the first half.

I really want to point at the version of “Like a Rolling Stone” on here in particular – the Judas intro is one thing, but what struck me the most about it is how much the slightly slower tempo affects the vibe of the track in a really, really cool way. It creates just a bit of a psychedelic vibe, especially in the way Dylan slows down that famous “how does it FEEL” line. It’s a small change, but it does so much to let Bob’s vocals hang in the air just a bit longer. Combine that with the way the band is totally in sync with each other, and with Bob & his harmonica, it feels specifically focused & motivated just to shut this one heckler up and make him realize that this is the direction music’s gonna go in. There’s something really special about that specific recording, and it’s the cherry on top of a pretty good album. It’s honestly what gives this the bump up from a 4.5 to a 5 for me.

So, yeah, it’s a 5 for me. Does that mean Bob Dylan has finally clicked for me? I dunno. There’s a chance the rest of these studio recorded albums that we’re bound to get don’t appeal to my sensibilities like this one did, and as a whole, I think I’m still just a bit shaky on the guy. Granted, that shakiness was an average of 3.75 (and I suppose now a 4.16), so perhaps I’m overstating my case. At the very least, I think I’ll have a much healthier appreciation for the rest of the Bob Dylan albums we get from here on out, and if nothing else, this album lived up to the “important document in the development of popular music” line on its Wikipedia page. Good on you, Bob. Play it fucking loud, indeed.

I’m at a 3.5 that I’ll bump up to a slightly biased 4.

When it comes to mostly instrumental albums like this, I don’t think there’s too much to say, because you either like it, or you don’t. In this case, I liked it. I didn’t like it enough to give it a flat 4, because there’s certainly enough repetition in the soundscape and enough filler moments to create a DBZ arc, but I like this enough to bump it up to a 4.

My bias is simply that this appeals to a lot of my VGM sensibilities. That is to say, give me a PS1 jungle style beat, and I’ll vibe with it a lot of the time. This feels a LOT like PS1 jungle, and I love the way this blends aspects of traditional Indian music, Japanese DnB, & electronica. It makes for a really coherent soundscape, one that’s not too far removed from the Ridge Racers or Ape Escapes of the world, but just distinct enough to feel unique, at least for the hour-long runtime that this has.

I do fully understand why this has a 2.61 average on the site, because to an ear that’s not paying attention, every track here sounds the same. Hell, even to my ears, I’m sure there are a few tracks that sounded the same that I just sort of chose to ignore. At an hour long, it’s shorter than some of the other DnB albums we’ve gotten, which helps a bit. It’s still long though. However, when it fully clicks, there are moments here where it just feels great to listen to – the stretch of Eclipse to Light in particular is the best stuff on the album, by far. If I gave this another listen, I might find it tedious, but I do think the floor here is a 3 regardless. It’s totally competent Indian-infused electronica that I vibed with on most of the tracks, and even at its most bland, it still sounds pretty good to listen to. Hence, a 3.5 bumped up to a slightly biased 4.

I’m at a 5.

Weirdly, I think I prefer parts of “At San Quentin” more, mainly in the moments where Johnny gets to more directly interact with the crowd and show off a lot of that outlaw country charisma that made him famous… but this is probably the better setlist, and a really fitting one for a prison album. It’s the first prison album he recorded, though the second one we’ve gotten on the list – everything I said about “At San Quentin” applies here, with a little more emphasis on the musical side of things. The little gravelly tones in his voice, the punch in the percussion, and the overall energy of the band / backing vocalists comes through really clearly.

That said, I love the way this album really gives some space to the prison crowd itself – the announcements for prisoners, the crowd popping for certain lines, and perhaps most effectively, the silence in the room when Johnny’s in the middle of a great storytelling track. They’re hung onto his every word, and there’s a reverence in the air for the guy that comes through because of it. Their presence feels like an enhancement to Johnny’s performance here, as opposed to the more “typical” sounding crowd of fans vibe that “In San Quentin” gave off. It just creates a different atmosphere, that when combined with the longer runtime, really makes the prison feel more intimidating, cold, & real, which makes Johnny’s choice to go there all the more interesting & entertaining.

Is it THE best live album ever recorded? I don’t know if I’m qualified to answer that, given that I don’t listen to too many live albums. From what we’ve gotten on the list so far, I think there are some that I prefer, but that’s just because I’m a sucker for an electric crowd atmosphere & some fun stuff that you can only do in a live setting. Something like “Live At The Harlem Square Club” by Sam Cooke comes to mind. I’d also be remiss to not point at Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged album.

With that said, it certainly feels like one of the best live albums ever recorded, and I’m not gonna argue with anyone who says it’s THE best. It’s way, way up there, and it’s just a kick-ass album regardless. I enjoyed this a lot – it’s Johnny Cash singing in a damn prison. It was always gonna get a 5, and it earned it in spades. Great, great stuff here.

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

It’s a nice enough 3, though. Honestly, my closest comparison is “Maxinquaye if it had a personality”, which feels pretty apt. Unlike Maxinquaye, I really did enjoy a good chunk of this. The trip-hop beats infused with pop sensibilities work really well at certain points on this album, and out of the 15 tracks here, I’d say that about 8 of them clicked with me at a higher level, and most of the other 7 still sounded pretty good regardless. There’s not a boring track here, just boring moments within each track that slowly build up over the course of the album experience that drags this down immensely.

I feel like anything more I have to say would be negative (i.e., pointing out all of those boring moments to justify my giving it a 3), but really, the positives of this album are best heard by listening to it. Realistically, all of my negatives are only there if you’re *really* paying attention to the music while listening to it, because it’s very very easy to get lost in the soundscape of a lot of these tracks and never even notice the repetition. It does sneak through during some extended instrumental sections, where the vocals go away and sort of minimize the soundscape, but those moments aren’t *super* prevalent in the album. They’re still there though, and they happen often enough that at best, I think this album has a ceiling of a 4.

All that said, I think it’s a genuinely enjoyable 58 minutes. It’s a long one, but it was at least interesting enough to keep me engaged. Mileage may vary, so I can understand people giving this a 1 or a 2, but for my ears, I just had a nice time listening to it. It’s not super special, and I can’t necessarily say it deserves to be one of the 1001 albums to listen to before one dies… but I liked it regardless. A solid, solid 3.5 that goes down to a 3.

I’m at a 4.

I knew I recognized the name Anita Baker from something; Sweet Love is what MF DOOM sampled for Hoe Cakes. I don’t know why it didn’t click until listening to it. Past that though, how does Anita Baker actually stack up as an R&B artist within that sort of pseudo ”quiet storm” prototype phase, before it went ballistic in the ‘90s? Well, I think she did pretty good. Ultimately, her vocals sound great, the instrumentals are really nice (if a bit repetitive when paying too much attention), and the general structure of each track finds a pretty nice groove. I liked a lot of this album.

I’ll admit, a few tracks took multiple listens to really click for me here, but I think my approach to listening was a little too methodical at first. I didn’t really give myself that room to just relax and enjoy the songs for what they were, because I found myself too focused on the “flow” of each track (i.e., a little too focused on lyrics/structure). I’m glad I made the adjustment to literally just chill out, because the vibe of each track came through way more clearly, and it allowed my ears to pick up on a lot of nuances I was missing otherwise.

With all of that said, there are points where you can tell the outros are heavy on padding, or the breaks between choruses/verses are a bit long. However, those moments don’t detract from the songs at an individual level too badly. They just build up over the course of the album to a point where it becomes a nuisance, and that’s partially why I’m at a 4. I’m also at a 4 because for as nice as this is, this does tread over the same ground a few times, and the general instrumentation does feel sort of the same for a good chunk of the album. There’s lots of great production tricks to sort of disguise that, and each track does feel really nice to listen to, but the spectacle of Anita Baker’s voice can only cover those little spots up for so long.

So, yeah, I’m at a 4, but it’s a pretty nice 4. At the very least, it’s some damn smooth R&B – perhaps a little overproduced, and not quite at the same pure emotional level as someone like Aretha Franklin, but I think that comparison is a bit unfair to begin with. I feel like 80s R&B is a different style entirely, with the shadow of Quincy Jones’ production on Thriller hanging over a lot of the decade. Comparing it to the 60s or even the 70s feels sort of unfair. Regardless, I enjoy this style a lot, and I’m a pure sucker for it. Hence, the 4.

I’m at a 4.

I always wanted to listen to a Tom Petty album, based off of some of the bigger hits I know (mainly Free Fallin’, let’s be honest), but I didn’t quite realize we were basically getting a 5th Elvis Costello album already. For better or for worse, that’s my immediate key comparison here – so much of this style reminds me of Elvis Costello’s first 2 albums. It’s obviously not 1:1, as Tom Petty’s vocal style on this album is a bit more gravelly, evoking more of a Springsteen meets Dylan-y vibe, & the Heartbreakers are going for more of a classic rock vibe as opposed to a sort of “pop infused with punk rock” vibe that The Attractions went for. It’s still close enough that a lot of my praise towards those Elvis Costello albums apply here.

In that sense, I’m kind of just a broken record. Genuinely, there’s not that much to say, other than scattered bits of praise – I love the Steely Dan vibes of “Breakdown”, I love the simplicity of the lyrics on “Hometown Blues”, I really liked the guitar section on “Anything That’s Rock ‘n’ Roll”, I appreciate the blatant Bob Dylan impression on “Strangered in the Night”, & “American Girl” is just a great track. Besides that, it’s just some good old rock & roll – not quite at a 5, but a very solid 4.

P.S.: I can’t believe “Full Moon Fever” isn’t on this list. Gonna have to get to that one in my own time.

I am somehow at a 4.

Call it Stockholm Syndrome if you want, because it very well could be – I found myself utterly captivated by just how goddamn out there this one was. I had the same general feeling with “Dub Housing”, but while that album sounded truly, truly horrendous at certain points, the very worst part of this album is the egregiously awful buzzsaw tone that permeates the first track. If you can get past that, the rest of the album feels a lot nicer by comparison (save for the shattering glass on “Sentimental Journey”, although I think it’s kind of fitting, somehow), though it’s still a tremendously strange journey through some manically designed soundscapes. Honestly, I really did like everything from “The Modern Dance” onward, so if your first track is your worst track, I guess it speaks to the sort of people they wanted to weed out from the very top.

I think this album is entertainingly strange, & it’s very intentionally designed to evoke the imaginative senses in ways that normal music may not be able to capture. There’s no heartfelt lyrics, there’s no beautiful string sections, & there’s certainly no mesmerizing vocals. This album evokes stuff like “fucked up jazz you might come upon in a dream”, “a crowd horny for propaganda”, “Donnie Thornberry-core”, “trauma dumping ASMR”, “being held hostage on a UFO”, and my favorite, “the first sentient android’s attempt to make Roxanne by The Police solely off a prompt”.

Do the tracks actually reflect this at all? I dunno, mileage may vary, but solely based on my brain going to such strange & avant-garde places throughout the 36 minute runtime, and my belief that most of this is a genuinely competent (save for the first track) & intentionally designed album… I honestly feel captivated enough to give it a 4. Realistically, more of a 3.5 that I’m bumping up to a 4, but I think it’s actually earned it. Am I insane? Yeah, probably. Do I regret it? Not yet. Will I? Who knows. Either way, I’m giving it a 4 and you can’t stop me.

I’m at a 5.

It’s weird – I never knew this was sort of a two-sided album, even with how incredibly prevalent “Running Up That Hill” became a few years back. Past that song, I truly knew nothing else here, but once again, Kate Bush has really come through. This isn’t the best album we’ve gotten from her; that still goes to “The Sensual World”, but this album’s highs are pretty damn close to that one’s.

I do feel like the first 5 tracks here get overshadowed by the story/concept side of the last 7 tracks, but they’ve all got something going for them. “Running Up That Hill” is the all-timer here for the synth work & imagery it provokes, especially in terms of pleading to God himself. It went viral for a reason, and it’s just a great track. “Hounds of Love” simplifies that imagery a bit but adds a nice sense of panic; while it might be my weakest track here, I think it’s a great listen. “The Big Sky” does something really ethereal with the percussion work that just brought me into a total zen state. “Mother Stands for Comfort” is eerie as hell, and sort of reminds me of a Peter Gabriel 3 type of track, with even her vocals matching the cold, killer instincts of this murderer. “Cloudbusting” is a great listen, but it has a lot of historical context that I just need to dive deeper into to really “get” the track, I think. Regardless, I liked all 5 of them.

It is the second half of the album that really shines here though – while “The Sensual World” took a look into the human need for desire, relevancy & comfort, all of “The Ninth Wave” focuses heavily on hope, insecurity, & survival, showcasing the dreams & delusions of a woman drowning in the middle of the ocean, presumably from a shipwreck or something. It really is an excellent set of tracks, with a heavy emphasis on sound design to compliment the instrumentation & her stellar vocals. It definitely leaves some of the onus on the listener to piece it all together, because it is just a mish-mash of soundscapes and styles otherwise, but I think it’s all incredibly well written and performed.

I really want to focus on “Hello Earth” in particular, because something about the use of the choir in that song really, really clicked for me – it’s so disconnected from the main soundscape of the rest of the track that it almost feels like angels observing our protagonist, both within her dreams/delusions & in the outside world, watching her drowning body. It’s the sort of thing that’s really open to interpretation though, which is the hallmark of a great moment in a concept album to me. In the same way that books can be interpreted in multiple ways, having a moment like this where any listener can have an entirely different vision is just incredibly cool to me.

Once again, I do think “The Sensual World” is a better top to bottom album, but that’s entirely subjective, and it shouldn’t be used as a way to diminish this one. This is a great album in its own right, and I loved it all the same. Since this is the last Kate Bush album on the list, the onus is on me to go through the rest of her discography. With that said, going 15/15 means you did pretty fucking good, Kate. Just a remarkable stretch of albums, all deserving to be on the list. As far as this one goes, it’s an incredibly easy 5.

I’m at a 5.

I dunno, something about the “Disney” feel of this album really clicked for me – the blend of the orchestration, his vocal tones, & the rather rich & vivid lyricism on each track all fall right into my wheelhouse. I’m a big fan of music that forces the listener to feel involved, if only because I really enjoy trying to catch and figure out the vibe of each track. That’s not to say there’s not a place for easy listening “turn your brain off” music, because I adore that all the same. This is just an album that mixes the best sensibilities of both – really good lyricism & really easy instrumentation, that provides the “correct” soundtrack to each song.

I’ll say this – this is mostly an album of covers, which does diminish it a little bit, but his delivery & poise & confidence on each track overrides that for me. It really is all in the delivery; something like “The Girls & The Dogs” only really works if you approach it with a Mary Poppins-esque whimsy. That works both ways, like with the triumphant vibe on “The Amorous Humphrey Plugg”, which wouldn’t feel the same without the bombastic tenors of his voice. Of the four tracks Scott wrote for this album, I think that one is probably the best, but there’s not really a miss here.

It’s definitely not an album for everyone – to ignore the lyricism would probably lead to some variant of “pretentious orchestration by a man who’s trying too hard”, and to focus too heavily on the lyricism might lead to some variant of “pretentious poetry by a man who’s trying too hard”. I think this album finds a healthy balance, but the onus is on the listener to find that balance in their own right. Whether or not placing so much on the listener is a good strategy is for other people to debate. With that said, I don’t understand how this has an average of 2.46 on the site, because I really think it’s a 3 at worst. For my tastes, I really enjoyed this, & I think it’s deserving of a 5.

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

Not much to say to this one: just an organ, a saxophone, some drums, and an occasional guitar going back and forth taking little solos for 38 minutes. Is it sort of repetitive? Yeah, I’d say so. Did it affect my enjoyment? Not even a little bit – this album sets its tone early as an easy-listening dinner club style jazz album, and never raises expectations to a higher big-band level, so I never felt annoyed that each track was the same.

It’s definitely just a “pop on and do whatever while listening” album. Why is it on the list? Well, the book explicitly says the following:

“Redolent of church pews and skating rinks, the organ was once relegated to hip-free zones, a square cousin to the autoharp and accordion. And then along came Jimmy Smith, who turned his attention to the instrument in 1954 just as the Hammond company was unveiling its relatively compact new B3 model. Smith transformed the organ's lamentable image with his soulful synthesis of bebop, blues, and gospel, creating a powerfully grooving new sound. He spawned a new style of music—soul jazz—and a host of disciples who took up the Hammond B3 and formed combos.”

So… yeah, I guess it’s just a revolutionary use of the organ as a soul instrument that defines this album’s presence on the list. It gets a lot of shine here, and while my brain went to the Monty Python intermission theme many times while listening, I can only say that’s kind of a positive. I enjoyed this, and I feel fine bumping it up to a 5, though I can understand the case for going as low as a 3. That’s the floor, though; these are really good arrangements, & it’s just too smooth to not vibe out to.

I’m at a 10. I’m also slightly emotionally exhausted.

There’s something to be said about the brilliance of this album, and the ways in which it so earnestly portrays grief & pain, while still using it as a stepping stone to inevitable happiness, framed via the frustrations of a generation & shadowed by the plight of the Reagan years. If Nirvana’s “Nevermind” was the grungy anthem for Gen Xers pissed off at the world, this album is its more somber counterpart, made for those who really just needed someone to tell them it would all be OK. Honestly, you could write essays about this album and there would still be things left uncovered.

However, flowery language fails me here. I really don’t have that historical soliloquy in me. At most, I can praise this album for everything it does right, because I don’t think it does a single thing wrong. Instrumentally, I love the shift to a more grunge-influenced soundscape, clearly influenced by the impact of Nirvana, yet still so recognizably being R.E.M. on all of these tracks. I think Michael Stipe’s vocals are as stellar as ever, & the slight anger that underlines a lot of these tracks is enhanced by some of the shakier tones in his voice.

As far as the songwriting goes… I just can’t believe these are the same guys who wrote a bunch of vague nonsense on “Murmur”, you know? Don’t get me wrong, “Murmur” is a great album, but the lyrics there always nagged at me. “Document” does a better job than “Murmur”, but there’s still a few on that album that bite at me too. This one, though? Fucking hell. Just a bombshell lineup of well-written tracks. It’s the best stuff they’ve written so far, by far, at least for my tastes. Even when it feels sort of cheesy, like on “Everybody Hurts”, which has been overplayed to death (& perhaps ruined by Vine), there’s something in how earnest it all comes across that keeps each track grounded.

Believe me, I’d love to go even deeper into how much I enjoyed this, but I’m already just drained. I’ll end on this note: apparently, this is the album Kurt Cobain was listening to when he committed suicide in 1994. Whether or not that’s real, or just urban myth, I’m not entirely sure; lots of conflicting sources on that. Either way, Michael Stipe’s relationship to Kurt is well-documented in its own right, and Kurt’s on record as saying this album’s tone is the direction he would’ve wanted to take Nirvana in. In that sense, iron sharpened iron here in a remarkable way. I really, truly loved this. It is one of the best albums we’ve gotten in this experience, and it’s an absolute 10. Just a stellar, stellar work of art.

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

Not too much to say; pretty solid psychedelic folk. I liked 6 of the 10 tracks here a lot, so batting 60% on “pretty good” is a fine enough bar to hit. However, this album is just glacially slow, which is why I can’t give it a 4 in good conscience. It’s not because it’s a bad album – in many ways, I’d honestly recommend it as a showcase of psychedelic standards of the time with more Bob Dylan-esque folk sensibilities. It makes for a really cool soundscape when it’s at its most upbeat, and even on a lot of these slower tracks, there’s something about the tone of his vocals and the imagery produced by some of the lyrics that makes each track feel just a little bit intoxicating.

It is THAT damn slow though. A number of tracks loop the instrumental to the point of losing the luster, and a good chunk reuse lyrics in a way that enhances a feeling of deja vu that persists throughout the 40 minute runtime here. There’s not even a bad track, or a bad soundscape. It’s really a fine enough album that’s dragged down by how often it spins the wheels. Each track overstays its welcome by just enough to feel consistently bothersome, and the 4 tracks I didn’t click with enhance that “bothersome” factor by a lot. Again – nothing is bad here, and in terms of playlist stuff, a lot of this is super easy listening that would feel great at an individual level. It just drones on as an album. Hence, the bump down to a 3. I still liked it, though.

“The Trip” really should’ve been a bigger track, by the way. That one was rad.

I’m at a 5.

Honestly, one’s rating of this album boils down to “how much can you tolerate 40 minutes of mambo music”, because this is objectively 40 minutes of the same general soundscape, big horn sections & all. I can totally hear someone becoming bored of it and giving this a 2 or a 3 (to which I also say, whoever you are, you had zero fun listening to this album), but for my fully swaying & moving body that had a great time just vibing for those 40 minutes, I can’t give it anything less than a 5.

Of course, I have my mild complaints – a few soundscapes are certainly repetitive, overusing some of their fancier tricks a few too many times in the songs itself, & I do wish some tracks gave a little more space to the vocals, because when they’re rolling, they bring a sort of Sinatra-esque vibe that I think really meshes well with the instrumentals. That’s not enough to drag it down though. I’ll say this: if there had been a “Hong Kong Mambo 2”, then maybe I’d be at a 4.

It’s just really good mambo music, what can I say? I enjoyed this a lot, and I feel good about giving it a 5.

I’m at a 4.

Not much to say on this one, really; it’s just a straight improvement from their debut album. Perhaps it’s me being more attentive in the 377 days since we got the last Undertones album, but I just thought this clicked better. There’s improved songwriting, a more balanced showcase of all the instruments as opposed to just the guitar (which is still excellent by the way, but the percussion REALLY gets its shine here), some smoother vocal performances, & the variety of each track sticks out nicely because the album flows better. It’s weird to praise an album for being longer, but I think the extra time here gives each track more room to breathe, in a really fruitful way that makes the album experience feel more memorable.

Are there still a few unnecessary tracks? Yeah, probably, and it’s partially why I’m at a 4. That said, there’s never a bad soundscape here, & this is a pretty breezy 35 minutes regardless. I liked it, what can I say? Just an easy listen, with some occasional standout melodic moments, and a good chunk of tracks that really clicked for me this time around. Hence, the 4.