Reviews by guggmo

I’m at a 4.

I dunno, maybe my expectations were a bit too sky high after the brilliance of both “It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back” & “Fear Of A Black Planet”, but this one fell a little shorter for me. I don’t think it’s in the production – the beats here are still good enough, though this clearly isn’t as up to par as those two albums. It’s not totally in Chuck D’s flows or lyrics, because his stuff is still sharp for the most part, but he does have moments where the energy just doesn’t feel as present. It’s partially in Flavor Flav’s, because he’s sort of relegated to a P. Diddy-esque hype man role ala “Ready to Die”, and his contributions to this one come across a little more bitter & angry compared to his stuff on the other two albums; I might just be missing something, though, who knows?

I’m not sure exactly what it is, but the closest thing I can come up with is just that the album’s subject matter just hasn’t aged particularly well. Sure, a lot of this still has a prescience to it, but it lacks the sort of timeless bite that makes the prescience have a point that really sticks. A lot of the complaints brought up here are valid, but much like Flavor Flav’s stuff, it’s rooted in a way that doesn’t address the core of the issue and just sort of fantasizes around it. That lack of a call to action, in a meaningful sense, something so blatantly present on the other two albums, feels replaced by a call to just sort of acknowledge it and hope someone listens. Once again though, I might just be missing something.

That’s not to say there’s no bite – the first 4 tracks are great, and “By the Time I Get to Arizona” is a fantastic track that contains the direction I wish this album had really, really stuck to, but a lot of this album does come across as flatter, especially the last 4 tracks (save, partially for “Shut ‘Em Down”). That’s NOT counting the Anthrax remix of Bring tha Noize, which is, for better or for worse, nu metal being born right there in 1991. That shit was rad.

With all that said, it’s still a great Public Enemy album, but something is just missing here – whether it really is the subject matter not aging as well, a more bitter tone to everything, or the production / storytelling not hitting the same level as the first two PE albums we got, it’s something noticeable enough for me to give them a 4 for the first time. I still recommend it, though. It’s a solid 52 minutes, and it’s still got Chuck D flowing like a motherfucker – when he’s rolling, there’s still an infectious energy that’s too damn good to ignore. He’s just not rolling as much on this one, hence the 4. Again, though, and I cannot stress this enough: I might just be missing something.

I’m at a 3.5 that I'll bump up to a 4, but just barely.

On paper, I love the idea of blending Tracey Thorn’s excellent vocals on Idlewild with a more unique sound, aka the D&B / electronica of the mid/late 90s. There’s good beats here, and her vocals sound as strong as ever. The album sort of succeeds at finding a general baseline for its basslines, and in that sense, what’s here is a really competent 41 minutes of tracks. I did enjoy the album. For me, though, the issue is one that’s annoyingly simple to say, but hard to actually execute: the tracks just don’t go far enough.

This album is just missing part of the thrill that makes a roller coaster ride of an emphatic D&B track so compelling to listen to. Her vocals are there, and the basic beats are there, but we’re not leaning enough into the electronica aspects to really make each track go, at least for my tastes. Too many tracks on this album suffer from not going far enough, and too many tracks on this album suffer from simply not going anywhere at all, at least for long enough that it’s a noticeable issue.

4 tracks really stood out to me: “The Heart Remains a Child”, “Walking Wounded”, “Flipside”, and “Mirrorball”, and I suppose those tracks represent my other issue with the album; one that doesn’t necessarily matter as much, but one still bothering me all the same. There’s supposed to be a harmony that exists between lyrics, vocals, and instrumentation, and while this album has a safe enough harmony between the vocals and instrumentals, the songwriting chops that kept each track afloat on Idlewild are sort of thrown out here, save for those 4 tracks. It’s an unfortunate sacrifice to give more attention to the instrumentals/vocals, but with them feeling underbaked for my ears, it feels like an unnecessary one.

I’m digging into it a bit, but I still don’t think this is a bad album at all; I really liked it. For me, it’s just an undercooked one. I understand the desire to not fully sacrifice your sound and style to the D&B that permeates this album, but like… even Cher fucking used autotune on Believe, you know? Any kind of vocal effect would’ve done something to accommodate the electronica-infused production here, even if it was only for 5 seconds on each track. Either that, or just letting the instrumentation really explode and do its thing, as opposed to settling for a looping beat most of the time. Ironically, the "Wrong" remix present on the album partially remedies this issue (instrumentally, not vocally), but I hesitate to call it part of the main tracklist.

As far as the core 9 tracks go, this album’s got so much potential, but it never fully finds it for my tastes. With that said, the execution is still strong, and the album still has enough of a groove that I will BARELY bump this up to a 4. I really hope we get another album from them where they can fully perfect this for my tastes, but this is still fine enough all the same.

I’m at a 5.

This is the fifth David Bowie album we’ve gotten, and this is the third time I’ll be giving him a 5; big recovery from starting 0-2 with a 3 and a 4. This is also probably my favorite one we’ve gotten so far. I’d have to relisten to Low or Aladdin Sane to be absolutely certain, but considering those were both 4.5 bumped up to a 5, this one getting it right from the jump should say a lot.

If this is David Bowie’s cocaine album, then he picked the correct direction to go while he was on that shit – this is even more rock/American than Aladdin Sane was. When the guitars are rolling on this one, it feels about as even with a ZZ Top or Thin Lizzy-style band, one driven by just kickass guitar & percussion, and letting everything else build around that. I hesitate to invoke Paul McCartney & Wings, but this got around that point a few times.

For the record, I do recommend listening with headphones in, as opposed to like, stereo speakers or anything, just to get the full depth of the soundscape in your ears. It really does enhance the whole thing. That rings true for any album on the list, but I think it really did wonders here.

Station to Station is a stellar opener – 3 minutes just to get to any vocals, sure, but the sound design and pacing of the whole intro is really well done, so it flies by. The entire stretch before the switch-up halfway in feels like the closest I’ve heard David Bowie to doing a full blown prog rock song, so that was rad. When it does switch up, while the repetition eventually creeps in… man, that’s a really good switch the first time you hear it. The whole energy of the track shifts, and enters a smooth groove that glides the rest of the way. Rather sad lyricism, but a great track.

Golden Years is a bit lyrically confusing to me, but given that it was written for Elvis Presley of all people (I cannot IMAGINE what that room would’ve looked like), you can probably partially ignore them – it’s all in the charisma of the performance, and David Bowie certainly channels his best Elvis Presley for it. Really good pseudo rap flow to the whole thing too, and I thought it was cool as hell.

Word on a Wing is a bit preachy, but I admire the honesty that seems to be present in Bowie’s vocals – the lyricism does eventually start to feel repetitive and tread water, but I think it’s still an enjoyable listen. Probably my weakest track on the album, though. That gets partially remedied by TVC15 – while it ABSOLUTELY suffers from “first minute = whole song” syndrome in a way that would normally make my ears suffer, there’s something fun in the groove of the whole thing that made me just accept it for being what it was, letting loose, and really just enjoying the feel of the track. That’s probably what Bowie was going for, and I’m glad I let myself feel it before giving up on it.

Stay is TVC15 with an even funkier bend, and the entire soundscape is cool as hell, but those last 2 minutes are something really special that I think you can only really feel as a raw first listen one time. I do wish the second verse were better, just for my tastes, but paying attention to the lyrics at that point is like trying to find a rare bug on a roller coaster – ignore them and just enjoy the ride, you know?

Wild Is the Wind is a good closer – I do feel like Bowie tried just a hint too hard to capture the sort of 50s/60s soul/crooner vibe, and the reverb effect on his vocals wasn’t helping out either, but he sounds pretty good regardless, especially on the higher notes in the last 2 minutes. The instrumentation on that, with all the blended guitar & effective drum breaks, really clicked for me.

So, yeah, I have no real flaws – a few lull spots maybe, some occasional preachiness, and maybe a bit of repetition that pulls this down, but I think this is the sort of David Bowie album I’ve been waiting for. It’s his 70s rock / cocaine album, and I think it finds a groove that’s been missing from his other stuff for my ears (which has all still been really good); at 6 tracks, it’s concise with no filler, and it’s an awesome 40 minutes that blinks by once you get lost in that groove. Super easy 5 for me.

Well, that’s a 5.

Been a while since I’ve had an, “oh, this is THAT song” moment, but I sort of felt it coming with the 754 million plays that “Lovefool” has on Spotify. Truly cannot believe that wasn’t in my big playlist until now.

But, hey, that’s just one of the 11 tracks on here – how do the rest hold up? Well, I can safely confirm that, for my ears, this is the type of “fun” album we haven’t really gotten since that Scissor Sisters album, or at the very least, the type of instrumentation that’s just bubbly & happy, mixed with some rather sad lyricism full of self-doubt. I love a good “happy song / sad lyrics” combo when it’s done right, and the Cardigans know how to do it really well. I genuinely thought I hadn’t heard of them at all until now, but again, “Lovefool”.

There’s some super good standouts here for my ears – “Your New Cuckoo” feels like a super genuine opener about 2 people just falling in love with some city pop vibes, and I’m ok with buying into that. “Been It” is really catchy, reminiscent of “Girlfriend” by MJ, though it’s a bit repetitive over its last 90 seconds or so. “Never Recover” is awesome; big Teen Titans energy with a 60s feel, and it’s really easy to get caught in the groove of it. “Step on Me” has some devastatingly sad lyrics, but the instrumentation makes it feel really modern and a great listen. For some reason, the elevator music / hard rock structure of “Losers” really worked for me.

I think that cover of Iron Man deserves its own paragraph – it’s a super bold move to take such an iconic heavy metal track (which I’ve only really heard in passing, without paying super close attention to; it’ll be in the list, I’m sure of it) & make it a lo-fi lounge-y track that you might hear in a modern cozy indie game about like, serving coffee or something. I thought it was cool as hell, & for 1996, feels insanely timely for 2025. That exact style of production feels more relaxed & normal now, & I really wonder how they settled on that nearly 30 years ago.

I would’ve flipped “Great Divide” & “Choke” – “Choke” is a really nice track, and it has a bit of a “Billie Eilish does Mr. Blue Sky” vibe going for it that I think works great as a closer… if “Great Divide” didn’t exist. I think the glittery instrumentation on that track is lovely, I think the Sinatra-esque tone to the vocals and structure works really well, and as a sort of narrative ending to the abusive relationship talk that permeates this album, ending on a track that finally has some sort of happy positive conclusion would’ve felt satisfying.

Regardless, I really, REALLY liked this – it’s a breezy 39 minutes, a welcome pop cleanser with a hint of edge, & another one for the “this is THAT song” pile that will certainly continue to grow. It’s a super easy 5 for me, and I’m very glad it’s in the list; super deserved, and highly recommended. Great, great stuff here.

I’m at another 10 – that was a fantastic album.

Nobody told me the Rolling Stones were like this, you know? This is the third time we've gotten them, and they get better every time for me. To say “70s rock band” feels like an understatement – it’s obviously the easiest way to describe them, but this album is just a wonderful blend of rock, country, blues, soul, and a lot of other genres with the right amount of guitar flair and heavier percussion to mold them into something that Mick Jagger could just glide on vocally, and for the rest of the band to work in a harmony that’s kind of indescribable.

I could type a lot of things that sound similar to what I wrote yesterday, when we got Sgt. Pepper’s, but I don’t want to tread on the same stuff – it all feels like a buzzword to me right now. It’s critic speak, and I don’t want to engage in that when the album just evoked something in the soul for me that feels hard to put into words. This feels like the type of album that was made for me, as a sort of endgame to all the Gram Parsons-driven country/rock hybrid albums we’ve been getting for the last 417 days, and I think it’s the best of them. Hell, when this blends with harmonica & sax to bring in a poppier vibe that evokes Stevie Wonder and others, it gets even better.

I’m sure someone else has the words for this – I don’t. I can only encourage other people to find the same zen state I did, because there is nothing like it. For someone else, it might just be “overrated ragtime/rock/blues/country that Mick Jagger sort of yells over”, and that’s fair enough – for me, it’s just that easy to find the rhythm and feel as in harmony with the band, more so than on any of the other albums from the Stones that we’ve gotten so far. It’s not a flawless album – there are lull spots, and one egregious use of the N word, but I understand why this is called the best Rolling Stones album by some people, and why the magazine gave it that much praise. I think it’s that damn good, and it’s a 10.

P.S.: “Stop Breaking Down” is a perfect track with headphones in. I will not hear otherwise.

I’m at a 10. Obviously.

This is my first time hearing this album in full, and save for the title track (& When I’m Sixty-Four), my first time hearing or paying attention to a lot of these tracks. Yes, that includes “Lucy in The Sky with Diamonds”, which, on a true first listen, I can understand why they have never ever beaten the LSD allegations, & “A Day in the Life”, which is an absolutely stunning finale that I can’t find the words to praise. If there’s one thing I can appreciate this list for, it’s making me finally listen to the Beatles as album creators; it’s very easy to know all of the bigger hits, but I’ve never had an appreciation for the albums as complete projects until going through this. Hell, I’ve never really had an appreciation for the Beatles themselves until now – always an admiration of their status in pop culture, and an acknowledgement that music would not be the same without them, but never a full blown “holy shit, wow” until going through these albums.

This album, on a first pass, feels like a natural evolution of the soundscapes & production style of “A Hard Day’s Night”, “Rubber Soul”, and “Revolver” in their most polished & refined & bombastic way – granted, I’ve never listened to the latter two in full, so I can’t speak to if that’s actually true, but solely from what I’ve heard of their singles around this time, it just seems that way, perhaps with a hint more rock. That polish starts before you begin the album – even in the cover art that everyone on the planet has parodied since, the showmanship that’s present throughout this album makes itself known immediately, from those gaudy-as-hell military outfits, and their “past selves” literally to their right. Beatlemania is dead, and long live these bright colorful guys. It must’ve been striking as hell for 1967.

I don’t really wanna go on a big track by track analysis, nor do I want to go on another soliloquy about the brilliance of John, Paul, George, & Ringo – I’ve given them praise beyond belief for the other 3 albums we’ve gotten so far, and I’m sure I’ll give even more praise once Rubber Soul & Revolver do come up, if those albums are indeed as good as expected. As far as this whole project goes… man, it’s a hell of an album. Straight from the screams of Paul McCartney & the harmonization of the group to introduce themselves on the first track, all the way until the absolute brilliance of “A Day in the Life”, it’s just a marvelous 40 minutes.

Granted, this isn’t the best Beatles album we’ve gotten – some people will say this is their magnum opus, and while I can hear it, I sort of disagree with it. I think there are a few tracks here that feel sort of like afterthoughts; as such, they aren’t as concise & tight as stuff on the White Album or Abbey Road, and the album experience does suffer a little for it. I also think the concept isn’t taken as far and as fruitful as it could have been. This is Sgt. Pepper’s band, but we only really get an acknowledgement of the show they’re putting on at the start and the excellent reprise – a skit or two to really flesh out the concept would’ve done numbers for me. Then again, that’s not really the point of the album, is it? It's a rather loose frame that just allows the Beatles to sound "different" from expectations.

This is revolutionary in the sense of “high art concept album” done in a poppier form blended with rock, and it opened up the doors for the Beatles to experiment for the rest of their time together as a band, and probably made them all individually realize that the scope of their inevitable solo careers could be modeled on the ambitions this album set out for them. So, yes, this is the runway to the rest of the Beatles’ discography, both as a group, and as individual artists. However, it’s also the runway for literally everyone else to follow at the time, whether it’s in protest (like the Mothers of Invention album we quite literally got 3 days ago), in tribute (like the several versions of this album that have been done by groups of artists inspired by it), or in an effort to capture the same lightning in a bottle this must have given (and that list is too monumental to even count).

So, all that said, it’s a 10 – not quite at the same level as the White Album or Abbey Road for me, but a brilliant album nonetheless, with some of John & Paul’s finest songwriting, George’s most George-y song ever interrupting their flow in a positive way, and Ringo… I guess he hit some really nice notes on “With A Little Help From My Friends”, and his percussion has some standout moments. I gotta give Ringo more credit someday. Regardless, they’re all in fantastic harmony, and it produced a fantastic album. Long live those bright, goofy outfits.

P.S.: Joe Cocker’s version of “With A Little Help From My Friends” is a better track to me. That’s probably heresy, but I have more nostalgia with it, so I’m biased, sue me. Ringo's version is still pretty nice, though.

I’m at a 3, but I was surprisingly close to a 4 at points.

I tend to harp on the thought that “the first minute is the whole track” is a desperately negative thing, and it usually is – I find it to be an exercise that shows that a song is sometimes just an idea stretched out to fill time, with nothing really thought out past the first chorus. Shoegaze is the exact type of genre that leans into this philosophy as a tool for music to explore soundscapes through minor adjustments, and challenges the notion of “first minute = whole track” being inherently bad. If I’m being honest, as far as this album goes, it succeeded a few times – there are tracks here that I would classify as “first minute”-y tracks that really won me over, but it’s about a 50/50 split.

The last time we got a pure shoegaze album, to my memory, was “Nowhere” by Ride, released in 1990, and my initial assessment of shoegaze was that “it’s like leaving the reverb in as if it’s a smoke cloud from a fire; it just hangs around, and stays there, and it doesn’t really bother you, but it is kind of weird that it’s there”. This is a different variety of shoegaze, blended with more ethereal instrumentation & production to feel like the in- between phase of a lucid dream. The overblown guitars feel like the brain starting to stir awake, but whenever melodies pop in to cut through the mix, it’s a welcome remnant to grasp onto and really make something click.

It’s a very hit and miss effect (at its very worst on “nothing is”, which just droned for me as an exercise in madness), but when it works, it really works – there are about 4 or 5 tracks on this album I think I could go back to, just to try & capture that same feeling they gave me again. The other 4 or 5 tracks fall short of that same goal, and don’t inspire the same level of imagination, mainly because their instrumentation isn’t as captivating, and there’s never a chance to enter the zen state with them.

I do think I “get” shoegaze now, in a more proper way; apparently, these guys have two other albums on the big list, and if “Loveless” is this absolutely seminal 90s record and the pinnacle of this style that people claim it to be, I think it could be really good. For this, as a 1997 project dragged all the way into 2013 like it’s Duke Nukem Forever, I think it’s a fine enough showcase of the genre, and with maybe a little more time to reflect on each track and modernize them, this could’ve really shined through a bit more. For now, it’s a 3, with glimpses of a 4 for me, but too much inconsistency & a few too many “first minute”-y songs to get to that point. It is a recommended listen though; my “meh”s could be someone else’s “wow”s, and I guess that’s the beauty of a genre founded in noise as an instrument.

I’m right at a 4.

Wikipedia really shouldn’t call this grunge. It sets an expectation that immediately gets wiped away from the first strums of the guitar, and thankfully, settles into something that’s right down my alley – this is R.E.M. with the RPM turned up a bit, with a hint of Matchbox 20, the Goo Goo Dolls, or Counting Crows in there. There’s certainly some influence from grunge, especially in the guitar/percussion, but it’s not the driving sound/genre of the album, at least compared to what most people would call “90s grunge”.

This is the sort of alt-rock that I have a lot of love for, specifically because it’s a bit on the poppier side of things; give me a good chorus, some strong melodies in the verses, some catchy enough repeatable lyrics, and blend it with a band that knows how to play the instruments they’re given, and you can’t lose in my eyes. This album doesn’t always click on all of those, but it clicks a LOT of the time. The main reason I’m at a 4 is because the album does sort of get a bit stale around the middle – the structure of “cool acoustics with heavy percussion” gets a bit overplayed, and the lyricism and vocals don’t overcome that stigma, specifically around tracks 5-7. They’re still fun listens, but they’re just not as compelling to me for whatever reason. The same applies to the last 2 tracks on the original release; that cover from the musical Hair feels rather strange as the “ending” of the album – the Mrs. Robinson cover on the rerelease remedies that, but that original finish would’ve been a bit strange in 1992, I think.

Regardless, I did enjoy a lot of this – it’s right down my alley, and maybe with enough time, it could go up to a 5. For now, it’s a recommended 4, that feels like a bit of a “normal” cleanser to my ears after that Mothers of Invention album – that’s still a fine enough album, but I really needed something traditional today, and The Lemonheads came through. I gotta check out more from these guys, I think.

I don’t know that I can put a number to that.

I’m typing this one right after finishing the album for the first time – not giving myself any time to reflect or really think about what I just spent the last 40 minutes on, and I am… sort of just lost. Not in a bad way, not in a good way, but in a way that just feels ethereal & liminal, and oddly discomfiting and perhaps a bit lonely. This is another one of Frank Zappa’s counter-culture “the 60s kinda suck and this whole hippie thing is bullshit” albums, but it’s done in such a way that lends no respect or credence to the material it mocks in the first place, save for maybe the Hendrix parody that I’ve never heard the original track of.

This feels like a GTA radio station from hell, mixed with a TV show that I’ve seen/shown once before during the Thursday variety streams: it lasted one episode, from 1969, and it’s called Turn-On. The point of that show was just strange rapidfire, short form satirical comedy with an absurd bend, weird electronica fever dream music backing it, no time to breathe, think, or ponder, & it would ultimately just slap you in the face with whatever punchline it wanted to give – rinse and repeat in 30 second bursts for 28 minutes. It was cancelled promptly because nobody got it, shortform was scary, and the material was… very, very strange for 1969. It’s a show I respect even though I found it awkward to sit through, a little dated, and certainly a bit surreal.

This album gives me that same feeling in musical form – maybe a bit more intentional & designed to elicit such a harsh and jarring response. It’s certainly more forceful than Turn-On is. As such, I have no idea if I can put a number to this. It’s not a 5 – it’s too avantgarde and I think some of the concepts / material within this album are a bit curmudgeonly, even as a satire of the 60s that Frank seemed to fucking despise. It’s not a 1 or 2, if only because I respect what this is going for, even if I tend to disagree at times. I guess I'm at a 3.5, but I don't know whether to bump it down to a 3 or up to a 4. Putting this on the same level as that Bill Callahan album we just got feels strange, wrong, and awkward, as with any album this might be compared to that I also gave a 3. Bumping it up to a 4 also feels weird to me, because I'm not sure it's that deserving of one, even for how much I admire this.

All I know for sure (and I’m not even sure if I do know anything at this point) is that Frank Zappa succeeded at realizing some sort of vision on this album. I’m just not sure if it’s a vision that was worth realizing; this is, by far, the strangest album we’ve gotten so far. This classifies as music, and there are some good tracks here, but for the most part, I’m left with… something.

I hesitate to bring up the “art gallery” comparison again, but I think it’s somewhat earned here: this feels like someone smashing a Banksy piece to bits and pieces just to try and paint over it and “fix” the art themselves. I feel like if that happened, most people would say the Banksy piece is a better, more technically sound piece of art, beloved to some degree. To smash it, however, provides a new canvas, perhaps uglier than the original, but one that might be appreciated all the same, if the attempt to “fix” it is good enough. I can’t say whether or not this album is “good enough” in the artistic sense – that’s for other people to mull about and debate over for years to come, but I do think it’s “good enough” in the sense that Frank Zappa got to make his art, regardless of opinion. It’s a 3.5 that, unfortunately, I'll bump down to a 3 for me – it's certainly worth listening to, but it just didn't strike me as well as it could have.

I’m at a 3.5 that I will sadly bump down to a 3, even though I did like a lot of this.

My “issues” with this album have nothing to do with the technical side of things – I love the tone of his voice, which feels like it’s constantly morphing into some mixture of Johnny Cash, Nick Drake, & Leonard Cohen, and feels remarkably comforting yet authoritative. I love the instrumentation on a lot of these tracks, with the percussion used to something rather close to perfection on a vast majority of the tracks, and the rest of the instruments enhance the mood provided by the vocals. I really love the lyricism on about half the tracks here – when the metaphors & imagery click, as they relate to animals & inner struggle between thoughts, actions & moods, they click in a way that paint some remarkably vivid pictures.

That’s a lot of praise for something I have to bump down to a 3, so what exactly IS the issue here? The issue, at least for me, comes in the fact that this album just circles the waters a bit too long on each track, making them either overstay their welcome, or overlap too much with other ones on the album. It’s done in a way that dilutes & homogenizes the whole thing just a bit too much, in a way that’s too… rehearsed, I suppose? There’s a track or two that feel stuck within the script he’s trying to give (namely “The Wind & The Dove” & “My Friend”), and he’s really stuck on trying to make that metaphor work, no matter how hard it is to decipher. The same feeling of being “stuck” applies on the last track, “Faith/Void”, and it applies to the whole thing besides the lyricism – at 9 minutes, that track really drags along in such a way where the beauty of it is lost, and the meaning just becomes a few lines he feels obligated to repeat to fill up time.

With all of that said, I hear the acclaim, and I can feel why the album got rave reviews in 2009, and why it’s on the list. I do think it’s been surpassed by other albums that do this style better, and tell their stories more concisely, to trim down the fat in ways that feel more compelling. It’s a very 70s-esque album for 2009, and I really admire that, especially in a year I know best for big pop hits. It’s a strong 3.5, but I can’t bump it up to a 4 right now for all that I mentioned, hence the 3. I do recommend it, though, and it could bump up to a 4 someday.

That’s an easy 5.

This is a little more in the Fatboy Slim / Prodigy type of instrumental drum & bass album genre than it is a “hip hop instrumentals” album (ala MF DOOM’s Special Herbs), but I’m totally fine with that – this exceeded any and all expectations I had for it. It’s a breezy 60 minutes of some incredibly varied beats & soundscapes that feels innovative beyond its years, in a way that feels more attuned to the mid-2000s than 1996.

I really don’t have THAT much to say about it – a lot of my praise would come down to “really cool percussion” or “neat synth work” or “great sampling throughout” or “this sounds like this video game I really like”. It’s really just an audio journey that’s meant to be experienced with headphones in, ears attentive, eyes occasionally closed to bop your head to, and your hands available to hit some sick air drums.

If I have any knocks, it’s that some of the shorter, intermission-y tracks feel out of place (not the alien transmission ones, but stuff like “Untitled” & “Why Hip-Hop Sucks In '96”) & a few songs enter some repetitive states,but those are incredibly minor knocks – I really, really enjoyed this. It’s a wonderful listen, a great album experience, and a very welcome surprise for my ears; an album like this is the reason I’ve stuck with this for 412 albums so far, and it’s a very easy 5.

I’m at a 4.5 that I think I’m going to bump down to a 4.

Perhaps it’s just because I felt a little more zoned out while listening than I’ve felt like for the last few albums, but for as good as this was, it always found little pockets where it just sort of lost my attention for one reason or another. It could’ve been trying to decipher some of the more confusing lines in the first half, or getting a little lost in the instrumentation choices in the second half, but there was always something that just pulled me back enough to feel a bit broken by the album experience.

Granted, that’s not a major indictment on the tracks themselves or anything – from a pure listening standpoint, this is 42 minutes of great 70s rock, but more so an indictment of the amount of genre-blending within “rock” itself that permeates this album enough to make me feel a little dizzied and overwhelmed. This album can never fully decide which subgenre of rock it wants to settle into, and it makes for a slightly inconsistent brand throughout the whole thing that I was unable to really shake off – this album can go from acoustically-driven folksy Simon & Garfunkel-y style instrumentation, to heavier, Metallica-adjacent stuff, to regular 70s rock (ala the Frampton album we just got), and occasionally, a deeper dip into prog stylings. They all sound good, but it feels like a rotating door of styles that makes each track feel… just slightly off for me, in a way that’s hard to justify, but felt weird to my ears, I dunno.

I’ll say this – it’s incredibly close to staying at a 5, and it could get back up there someday, but it’s just a number of little things that add up for me; the “pockets of zoning out”, the inconsistency of “style” (just a personal thing), and perhaps I feel burned by the fact that the second half of the album has a such great consistency in tone & continuity with the Jesus-themed tracks, and the first half sort of drops it by Track 2. Even though most of the first 6 tracks are great, some of them are short & some of them feel tonally awkward next to each other. As an album experience, there’s just something nagging at me about the whole thing that’s bumping me down to a 4. It’s still a highly recommended 4, though – really strong stuff here, and it’s gonna kill me that I can’t place why it just feels slightly off.

I believe I’m at a 10.

Perhaps it’s the slight high of ending on the unbelievable closer that is “Do You Feel Like We Do”, but… man, that’s the blueprint for a live album right there. That’s exactly how you fucking do it – make sure the crowd is loud enough to hear, and let them have a presence, and let the music give them the energy to enhance the feel of the whole thing. It sure helps that the music itself was stellar – I’m normally big on lyrics, but when you’re at a live concert, it’s not like you can just pull up a lyric sheet (well, you can, but you’ll be exposed as a fraud probably), so I listened to this purely on the basis of the band, his vocals, and the energy of the crowd.

I cannot remember the last time a live album was THAT good. Granted, we haven’t gotten many, but the ones we have gotten always tend to pull back the crowd enough to make them a non-factor, have a few obvious cuts that ruin the flow, or have a lot of studio overdubbing that’s noticeable enough to sort of ruin the illusion of a “live album”. If there was any here, it must’ve been subtle or minor, because I’m convinced this was fully live all the way through – the only cut I could feel was on “Wind of Change”, and that track was probably my weakest one (that, or “Shine On”, oddly enough).

Other than those two tracks, which are both still fun listens, this feels like nothing short of a masterclass in terms of track variety, crowd control, and really, just how to perform live in general – Peter Frampton has a really nice voice that plays charismatically live (not sure about his studio work, since this is my first time ever listening to the guy), but it’s his guitar work that steals the show in combination with the rest of the band – that last track, as well as the cover of Jumpin Jack Flash are the two standout examples of it. On both, it seemed like the crowd was ready to hit a fever pitch that might literally cause a minor hit on a seismograph. Maybe that’s just an excellent job on acoustics & mics, but it felt indescribably electric, even as a recording – I can’t imagine what it would’ve been like in San Francisco.

I truly don’t have any major flaws here – maybe the one line about molestation on “It’s a Plain Shame”, and even then, I feel like I might be reading it wrong, somehow? It’s a weird line that seems like it’s from the perspective of a crazed fan that Frampton wants nothing to do with; still a strange train of thought, though. One line aside, and two “eh” tracks, it’s just a stellar 80 minutes, and I do feel like it’s reset the bar for my expectations of what live albums should be like on this list. Insanely good – a 10, through and through.

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

I’m learning that I’m a sucker for vivid imagery in folksier singer-songwriter albums like this, but more than that, I’m a sucker for when the world reveals itself within a track. I love focusing on slices of life sometimes, but when a line just *clicks* and reveals so much beyond what’s being presented in the lyrics, those are the aha moments that stick with me and make me appreciate the quality of the songwriting.

This album does that plenty of times, and it’s probably why I’m really, really into it – it certainly helps that they pair that with great instrumentation that feels befitting and adds onto the atmosphere of each track instead of just being there for the sake of qualifying as music. It also helps that Linda Thompson sounds a lot like Emmylou Harris & her vocals harmonize brilliantly with Richard’s. I’m really stunned he has the first name basis on the album cover, since she has way more of a spotlight.

It’s not a perfect album; I do think this leans into sad themes a few too many times, which sort of contrasts with the brighter soundscape in a way that lends itself to quicker burnout potential. When it’s on one though, it’s a fantastic album – stuff like “Withered and Died”, “Down Where the Drunkards Roll” and especially “The End of the Rainbow” are heartrendingly sad, but so well written, composed & performed that I think it’s impossible not to admire them.

Hence, the 5, because I admire too much of this album to not give it that bump – the only track I’m down on is “Has He Got A Friend For Me”, simply because modern cynicism over guilt-driven manipulation makes that track read much differently now than it would’ve read in 1974, and even then, that might just be a personal thing. I think the rest of it is really good; a few tracks might lean into that “first minute” syndrome, but the quality of the performances and the imagery override any complaints I could bring up. It’s a really recommended listen; for me, it’s no less than a 4, and pretty easy to bump up to a 5.

I’m at a 4.

This is my first time listening to ANYTHING by Frank Zappa ever, so starting at the debut is probably a good point; I'm vaguely aware of his place in this general era of music, but I couldn't tell you the first thing about the guy before listening to this. I did enjoy this a lot, though.

Admittedly, the last 20 minutes or so of the album cloud & overshadow the first 40 minutes, and tried their hardest to do a Men in Black-esque mindwipe on me, which probably worked to some degree. It is impossible to talk about this album in full without acknowledging that the final 20 minutes feel like a glimpse into the very molecules of the drugs that powered so much of the 1960s, and those molecules seep their way through the music & into the mind, and it is… certainly a trip of sorts. I’m not sure how to feel about that part of the ride – I didn’t hate it, but I’m not sure it’s a trip I’d willingly hop onto again.

Those first 40 minutes are really good though, and they’re strong enough to keep this at a stable 4 – a lot of it is riffs on other artists of the 60s, especially on the folksier/hippie side of things, but there’s some doo-wop, rock & a little bit of the Beatles scattered throughout. “Go Cry on Somebody Else’s Shoulder” is the blatant obvious pastiche here, specifically of “Put Your Head On My Shoulder”, but the album works mainly because it plays these genres totally straight, in a very Weird Al-adjacent way that strikes a good chord with me. The best way to parody something is to do it as faithfully as possible, and Frank Zappa & friends here completely nail that vibe.

When they do play it totally straight though (namely on “Trouble Every Day”, the standout of the album for me), it just tells me that they could’ve REALLY done some great work without having to riff on the entire culture of the 60s to that point. Granted, this album wouldn’t be as good without it, but there are moments here where the writing feels contrarian, a little too loose, or just outright toxic in its negativity. It’s never *bad* writing, but it occasionally tries to punch below the belt a little too much, to the point that even Trey Parker & Matt Stone would probably tell him to dial it back.

Ultimately though, I liked it – for 1966 in particular, this feels well ahead of schedule. It’s far from perfect, but so much of what’s here in its experimentation & willingness to go against the grain feels innovative in a way that’s hard to describe, but once again, kind of easy to feel after listening to it. Apparently, Paul McCartney once said this album acted as one of the inspirations for Sgt. Pepper’s, so… I’m excited to get that one now. As far as this album goes though, it’s a solid, solid 4 for me -- no less than a 3.

I’m at a 5.

No big allegories relating this to an art museum or anything like that; it’s just excellent poetry put into musical form, and I really, REALLY enjoyed it. I’ve dabbled in poetry before; I’m not great at it, but sometimes I’d like to think I do alright. This is masterful poetry – Leonard Cohen has always done a good job of pulling out emotions from something in his songs, whether it’s his older wistful vocals & biblical allegories on “You Want it Darker” or the immensely dreary heartbreak present on most of “Songs of Love & Hate”, and this album proves no different.

This is thankfully a much brighter album, or at least not painted as darkly – a lot of these tracks are drenched in the more mysterious & painfully confusing moments of one’s life, but they usually have something sunshine-y scattered throughout, to keep the imagery rich & hopeful, even while acknowledging the sadness of it all. Honestly, most of that sunshine comes in the instrumentation, which is more varied & “musical” than what I can remember on the other two Leonard Cohen albums we’ve gotten.

Once again, I will fully understand someone giving this a 3, or a 2, or even a 1 – if you’re not big on lyricism, or you find his voice bland, or you just want something truly bright & happy & poppy, this isn’t it. You have to be in the right mood (and arguably the right timeframe, it’s a night album imo) to get it, but I think what’s here is significantly more digestible & “gettable” than the other two albums, which still feel drenched in life experiences I may never truly feel or understand. This feels like poetry you can analyze without having to go layers deep; it’s remarkably vivid, and his songwriting still shines. I really truly enjoyed this – it’s a 5 for me; not a high end 5, but a 5 nonetheless.

“So Long, Marianne” rules, by the way.

Realistically, I would love to hang this directly at a 3.5, because I don’t think it’s quite good enough for a 4, but I do think it’s better than a 3, so a 4 it is.

My immediate comparison that comes to mind is “Nick of Time” by Bonnie Raitt, in terms of the general structure & theming of the album. Hell, even instrumentally & vocally, I’d say there’s a lot of similarities. I bounced hard off of Nick of Time, even though it’s a totally technically sound album, simply because the luster of its soundscapes faded away really quickly, and the whole thing ended up feeling too plain.

This album nearly falls into that same trap, but manages to avoid it by doing one simple thing that Bonnie Raitt didn’t: even if the luster does fade away after enough time, it knows how to change up its instrumentation mid-song in such a way that the luster returns. To put it more bluntly, this album succeeds simply in feeling bigger, and selling its listener on that, without feeling overdone. I found the instrumentation here to have a bit of grandeur that wasn’t present on that Bonnie Raitt album, and it felt like it came more naturally. Maybe I’m just a sucker for the more sophisticated style this album gives off (hence the genre title of Sophisti-pop on Wikipedia), but compared to Nick of Time, I felt more captivated by each track, just on account of the instrumentation. Some points off for the drum machine though; some real drums would’ve made a few of these tracks pop off a lot more.

Thankfully, Tracey Thorn has an absolutely lovely voice that overrides a lot of my complaints about the drums; super reminiscent of Celine Dion when she goes into her more ballad-y tones, but her control just glides on a lot of these instrumentals for me. The biggest knock I can give to this album is the same thing others have echoed; a lot of these tracks do boil down to feel pretty similar, no matter how much the instrumentation or vocals hide it – there are some great lyrical moments on a few tracks (I really liked Lonesome For A Place I Know), but a lot of the tracks are lyrically bland enough that it becomes noticeable.

Hence, the 3.5 that I’m going to begrudgingly bump up to a 4; I can understand how someone might give this a 2 or a 1, because it might be boring to ears more attuned to metal/rock, or more poppier 80s stuff ala MJ or Cyndi Lauper or the like, but for my tastes, the calmer yet controlled tone of this album clicked really nicely. I don’t think it’s that great of an album, and just from the tone of Tracey Thorn’s voice, I have to imagine there’s a more captivating Everything But The Girl album that could’ve been on the list, but I enjoyed this one enough – it’s a fun listen, and if nothing else, it’s remarkably smooth.

(P.S.: It would’ve been a 3 without the sax, probably. Sue me.)

I’m at a pretty good 4.

River of Orchids is a really awkward tonesetter that doesn’t match with the rest of the album, which is realistically just a big tribute album to the “weirder” side of the Beatles – a lot of these tracks are steeped in 70s-style production sensibilities, just with the fidelity, clarity, and advances in audio that 1999 provides. From “I’d Like That” onward, this whole thing really clicked for me; sometimes the lyricism is a little “I’m 13 & this is deep”-coded, but the instrumentation and vocals are great throughout.

Beyond just “weird Beatles” though, this leans into a range of other 70s/80s/90s artists, whether it’s Steely Dan, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, any number of prog rock bands of the era, and even just a hint of Nirvana. It’s a unique blend of artists & styles that makes the album feel fresh, and while a few tracks don’t click as well, none of the tracks after the first one feel unimportant, and it makes the album experience feel really good.

It’s not up to a 5 for me – I think a few too many tracks settle into a repetitive phase that brings them down at an individual level, but the entire flow of the album, the production, the lyricism, and occasionally the lyrics (especially on “Harvest Festival”) are all still great. It’s not exactly an album that takes the best advantage of being from 1999, but for a band that began in 1972, this feels about as contemporary as it could while still paying homage to what got them there. I really liked this; it’s a breezy 50 minutes, and I think it’s worth giving a 4.

I'm at a 5, but I do think this is the weakest of the Miles Davis albums we've gotten so far.

This is, from a technical standpoint, *really* impressive jazz work, and the instrumentation & experimentation it goes for does feel like a natural evolution from “In A Silent Way” – when we got that album, I said that “if Bitches Brew is indeed this even better, I cannot wait for that to pop up on the list”. Well, it popped up, and even though I do like this album, I think it suffers from two things that almost dragged me down from a 5.

The first is obviously the length; 93 minutes is a long ask for jazz like this – it’s double the runtime of “In A Silent Way”, and with tracks going as long as 27 minutes, I think Miles Davis himself might've been sipping that brew, because it is HARD to make jazz sound compelling for 27 minutes, even for someone as good as him. I couldn’t even listen to the album in one full sitting; I had to break it up between the first two tracks and the last 4.

The second is the fact that this is a mostly improvised album; few strokes of structure along the way, but for the most part, this is him & his crew riffing. It’s not a bad approach; I love the idea of letting the music take you wherever you think it should go, but the issue comes in the structures being a little too flimsy. More bluntly, I think too many people are stepping on each other’s toes, and it doesn’t create a good hierarchy of instrumentation, in such a way where everything feels too chaotic, too disjointed, and there’s never really a “dominant” lead instrument for too long on any of the tracks. Sure, some cut through more prominently like the lead sax (or trumpet, or whatever brass instrument it was), but it constantly feels like a fight between the guitar, piano, and the brass for the lead instrument. That structure might work for some people, and I can totally understand why, but for my tastes, I gave it a lot of leeway, and I just think the album never quite found the same groove as the other 3 Miles Davis albums we’ve gotten so far.

When I wrote my review on “In A Silent Way”, I said the album succeeded in its simplicity – it never went risky, and it played itself super safe. The balance between the traditional jazz & the electric guitar & the keyboards was really strong, and I think this album throws that balance out the window in a way that’s just a little too forceful for my tastes (or for my expectations). It’s not bad at all; it sounds like I’m ripping into it, but this is still a fantastic listen that’s admirable for what it’s going for, but just a little too chaotic for me. I imagine the reasons I’ve laid out are why this has the lowest rating on the website of all the Miles Davis albums we’ve gotten so far. It’s a big leap in ambition that landed on a wet spot and never quite found its footing, but still landed nevertheless -- it's a 5, but just barely for me.

I’m at a 4, and it’s a 4 that feels very relevant.

It doesn’t become super apparent until “Across the Wire” hits you over the head with it, but this is an album centered around the process of immigrating from Mexico to the U.S., with the hopes of a greater & better life. It’s not always telling that story, but for the most part, looking back at the lyrics of the first 10 tracks makes it readily apparent (especially Sunken Waltz, which doesn’t click well as an opener, but makes a lot of sense going back to it). Given all of the current ongoings with the Trump administration, this feels like a story that needs to be told, even with the downer ending of our protagonist getting caught, jailed, & imprisoned in chains. This album doesn’t do a *great* job of telling the story, and I do wish the lyricism had more of a personalized feel as opposed to a broader “anyone can be this guy” sort of characterization, but I respect it for telling the story regardless.

From a musical standpoint, while I do think the album is a bit scattered throughout the first 10 tracks as it tries to find its footing, the soundscapes are great – the mix of Afro-Latin instrumentation, Spanish guitar, blues, jazz, & electronica creates a super cool blend that I’m not sure has been captured very often in music. Albums like this are probably out there, but I’ve never really heard one that sounds like this, with a consistency in capturing the vibe, even if the tracks themselves can feel a little flatter or not as engaging. I thought it was a really enjoyable 48 minutes, even if the album had plenty of ups and downs along the way – the instrumentals clicked super well for me, but the tracks with vocals felt a little bit hit & miss, just for the lyricism thing I mentioned earlier.

It’s far from a perfect album, but the story it tells & the pride it takes in showcasing its sound is so desperately needed in today’s climate – obviously, the downer ending feels harsh, and perhaps far too real in the face of everything currently going on, but its realism should act as a rallying cry to avoid these sorts of sad endings. I really liked it, and while it’s not at a 5, it feels like it should be no less than a 3 – I’m at a 4 because it just felt really fresh & really cool to me. It’s a highly recommended album.