Reviews by guggmo

I’m at a 4.

This is a pretty damn good album, but by the end, it kind of falters into a directionless playlist that makes the album experience suffer just enough to drop this out of the range of a 5.

To put it more succinctly, I think by Track 10, a lot of the songs lose the tighter and more focused structure that was present earlier in the album, and devolve into great soundscapes but with really loose lyrics, and while I could look past it normally, it just happens too much and too often over the final 7 tracks to ignore. The Only Star In Heaven might be an egregious example of this; what a great hook to start off with on that first verse before kind of just rambling around a bit.

With that said, I still liked a lot of the tracks, even those final 7; I just wish the album was a little bit tighter and a little more focused. I don’t think there’s a single bad track here, but some of them feel like they could’ve been non-album singles in order to keep the album experience flowing better. If anything, the biggest knock I can make against this album is moreso how explicitly sexual it is at times. I’m not trying to add a song to my playlist that straight up talks about how mystifying an orgasm can be without any pretense, or just straight up has sex sounds in it like The Ballad of 32, you know?

Regardless, this album is no less than a 4 to me. It could even jump up to a 5 if the album’s structure magically clicks better for me someday, but what’s here makes for an exciting and sort of innovative soundscape for 1984 – I can’t say that I’ve heard too many 80s bands rely this heavily on synth work with an explicitly pop lean, but this album makes it work in spades. It’s a great listen, and it’s very fun; I’m still hung up on it as a full album experience, but it would be ridiculous to not give this album a try. It deserves to be on the list, and it’s a strong 4.

You know what? I’m at a 5.

For 1957, this feels like a sneak preview of what the 60s would bring to rock & roll, in a very good way. There’s a lot of DNA in here for what the Beatles would eventually refine and revolutionize, but this album stands on its own merits without those comparisons. If anything, it feels like Buddy Holly and friends were trying to capitalize on Elvis’s popularity without realizing they were creating the blueprint for the 60s.

Seriously, this is a damn good album; yes, it has moments where the production is kinda “ehh” but it’s 1957, so I can look past it. There’s some catchy fucking hooks and choruses here, and I love the way the doo-wop feel of the 50s is still represented here in the backing vocals. There’s just a hodgepodge of styles here that blend together very well for a 50s album, and I’ll be damned if “That’ll Be The Day” isn’t the best representation of that on this album.

I feel completely fine with giving this a 5; it’s a tight, enjoyable, and fun 26 minutes that never really overstays its welcome on a single track, and I just enjoyed it a lot. Pretty damn good album.

I’m at a 4, which is kinda disappointing, somehow.

I dunno, I guess I was really prepared for a 5, but a few tracks here and parts of the big medley at the end just didn’t quite grab me. Regardless of that, I did enjoy most of this album. Other than the revolutionary sample usage here, which is an incredible triumph for 1989 and an incredible tonesetter for rap production in the future…

…honestly, I just don't think there's a lot to wax poetic on. Don’t get me wrong; the beats are great, the flow is great, the lyrics are pretty good, and I think for the most part, the energy stays at a good point throughout. This *IS* the Beastie Boys, and they’re doing great work on most of this album.

There’s just something about a few tracks that I simply felt weren’t too captivating or engaging enough for me to really like them like that. It could just be fatigue from its length or the fact that there’s not any breaks like on Ill Communication. It’s honestly really weird, because I’d probably normally just look past it, but for some reason, when you just know something isn’t as good as you want it to be, you can just feel it. This album is still very good, but it falls short of hitting that 4.5 mark, and even if it had, I’m not quite sure I could bump it up.

Regardless though, it’s no less than a 4 – it’s a super fun album that just kinda fell short for me in a few spots, but it’s a great listen and a great way to cap off 1980s rap.

I’m at a 3.5 that I think I’m going to incredibly graciously bump up to a 4 that it just barely earns.

I liked most of this album. It has plenty of flaws, but I can look past most of them. I think the self-control in his vocals is a bit lost at times; he can’t decide if he wants to be Ozzy Osbourne, Paul McCartney, Prince, or Stevie Wonder for most of this album. You can’t be all 4. Somehow, he ends up sounding like the lead vocalist from Bowling for Soup for parts of this album as a result, but ultimately, that’s fine.

I think the lyrics on most of the tracks are good – pretty solid messaging throughout. I think the main issue I have with this album’s lyrics simply comes in its repetition, and I Build This Garden for Us is distinctly terrible about it. Really retreading a lot of ground throughout that track. The same thing goes for Be, which quite frankly, just stunlocked me with that “or am I a rapist who needs a release” line, because what the fuck does that mean? Is it about leaving prison? Is it about getting off? It’s a weird fucking line to throw in regardless.

Instrumentation is great across the album – no complaints from me on this one. Some of the tracks went a little long on their outros, but I could forgive it in the same way I can forgive a Stevie Wonder outro for going long, because the vibes are good and the music is a jam.

Ultimately, I do think this album just does more right than wrong to get up to a 4, but that could change on a relisten or two. It’s definitely not within the range of being a 5, though. This is, so far, the only album to have a straight 3 in the reviews so far, which tells me I might be a little generous, and I can see why. This is the type of album that might have more holes or flaws open up over time to bump it back down to a 3, but right now, I feel good about giving it the 4.

I’m at a 4.5 that I’m gonna bump up to a 5 with incredibly naked bias.

I’ve said it a million times; I’m a sucker for the soundscape of 50s/60s country because it’s partially what I grew up on. This album takes those soundscapes and blends them really well with 70s rock sensibilities, and it does it in a way where I truly think the best of both shine throughout here.

Vocally, Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris play off of each other so fucking well that it’s kind of mesmerizing to listen to. Lyrically, I thought a lot of these songs, while a little corny or cheesy at times, did a great job of storytelling and capturing moods. Brass Buttons in particular got me damn good.

I just thought this was a damn good album from start to finish – Return of the Grievous Angel is one hell of an opener, and the only track where I kind of shrugged was Love Hurts. Other than that, I just deeply enjoyed it. I’m really glad this is here, and it feels like it should be on the list. No problems with going up to a 5.

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

Really, the only reason I’m not at a straight 4 is because Attached is such a fucking deflating last track. That was 12 minutes of a glorified loop and it just felt like a really sour note to end a really good album.

Regardless, I will not let the final 12 minutes dictate what the first 63 gave to me, which was pretty fucking good. There’s some really fun soundscapes here, and while a lot of it leans into VGM-adjacent territory, I’ve just been listening to a lot of VGM lately, so this sort of soundscape fell right into my recent comfort zone. I think the production choices and sound design for most of this album are really good, and there’s a huge variety of synths to work with, and a lot of it comes together in a pretty harmonious way. The layering that builds up each track to get to something really concrete was well done throughout most of this album, and I found myself just vibing a lot.

I do think the final 17 or so minutes of the album fall flat; that’s the final 4 minutes of Are We Here? and the entirety of Attached, but regardless, I found so much of this enjoyable to listen to that I’m completely fine with bumping it up to a 4. This is some quality stuff here, and I’m really glad it’s on this list.

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

I’ve never heard Alice in Chains before this, but I knew the bar for this album was pretty high, and they crossed over it pretty handily. Almost every track here has a pretty infectious energy – a few songs hit an occasional lull, and a few have a little too much repetition at times, but overall, as an album, from top to bottom, I’d say that was about on point with a lot of their Seattle contemporaries of the time.

Nevermind is obviously still the gold standard of 90s grunge rock, and Nirvana’s sound on that album is timeless. I feel like the production on this album, for as good as it is, has the same thing going for it as Jagged Little Pill – just like how that album is sort of trapped in 1995, this album is trapped in 1992. That doesn’t mean it’s bad at all. Most of what’s here sounds super cool; the guitar work in particular, is off the charts. The percussion holds its own, and I’m deeply impressed by the grit in Layne Staley’s vocals.

If I have any complaints, they’re all probably nitpicky – things like “this track goes a little too long” or “the mixing here is a little too loud,” and while those are sort of valid, they’re not present enough on this album for them to be real issues. I just liked this album a lot. This has some great fucking grunge on it, and it’s very deserving to be on the list. Pretty easy to bump this up to a 5.

That’s a 3.5 that I’ll round up to a 4.

Sometimes, the music just sounds good to your ear. This album doesn’t do anything too special, but I… kinda just liked it a lot. Pretty consistent level of quality from top to bottom, and while there’s only one or two songs that especially stood out (for me, that’s Make My Mind and Traveler – they just kinda clicked well for some reason), there’s not really a bad song here. At worst, the first song makes for a really shaky first impression, but it recovers itself pretty quickly afterward with All I Know.

It could have certainly been a little better, and while I’m not necessarily sure this has to be on the list of albums, it’s a pretty solid showcase of the middle ground of 90s rock; not big enough to be Nirvana or Pearl Jam or Metallica, but just big enough to have a willing audience and a decent spotlight. Frankly, the real miracle is that there’s not a single swear word on the album. It’s just good enough for me to give it a charitable bump up to a 4, and it’s certainly no less than a 3.

For the first time in a long time, I’m on a 2. The last time I gave a 2 to a non-live album was to Calenture - The Triffids, and that was *3 months ago.*

Unlike Calenture, this is just straight up at a 2; it doesn’t even hit the “2.5 that I can’t round up” mark. There’s only 2 or 3 really good tracks at most, and yes, one of them is indeed the batshit insane yet wildly entertaining nonsense that is Jesus Built My Hotrod. The other one, for me, was Hero, if only because I couldn’t shake that it sounded like a Sonic track. TV II is OK, it just sorta clicked right for me for some reason. The first 5 tracks of the album are ultimately fine – they’ve got decent energy, some fun riffs, some fun percussion, and it does hit a solid high at Track 5. It was at a 3, until Scare Crow started.

The final 4 tracks of this album just strike me as utterly directionless, or padding for the sake of it, and there is no more egregious an example of padding than the 8-minute snoozefest that is “Scare Crow” – my god, I’ve never heard anyone pan out *syllables* before. Choosing to end on two instrumental tracks after the remarkably disappointing Psalm 69 is really what dragged this album down from being close enough to a 3 to being firmly at a 2 – what a flat ending to an album that had so much potential from its imagery to its cover to the weirdest title I think we’ve gotten from an album yet.

The really disappointing part is that the framework for a good album is here – speed up some tracks, throw in some extra vocals, hell, add a skit or two to play off of this religious theming; do something to add some extra character to your album. It feels like a fucking beta version of a style that other bands would imitate and refine to a greater degree (probably Nine Inch Nails, really, if I had to guess), and while it never dives into egregiously bad, it does dive into egregiously boring a few too many times at the end. It just fell short at the finish line to me, hence the 2.

I’m at a 5.

I just thought that was really fun – lots of great verses, lots of great lyricism, and a very cool minimalist East Coast style of production that doesn’t get too bombastic, and allows for them to really get their messages and their vocals across. Even though Lauryn Hill is clearly the star here, both Wyclef Jean and Pras come out swinging on this album, and occasionally have moments where they really do outshine her. As a group, they really do bring the best out of each other, and it’s a shame that this is the last album they made as a trio. Obviously, some shit went down, but some bands have existed longer over worse disputes.

I truly thought every track here had something to offer, and I don’t think any track really missed a beat. Just a super strong album from top to bottom, and certainly worthy of being on this list of 1,001 albums. If nothing else, it gave us that fabulous cover of Killing Me Softly, which is one of my favorite tracks ever. Pretty easy 5.

That’s an easy 5.

I am completely exhausted after listening to that – what a whirlwind 62 minutes of pure energy. That’s my first proper Metallica album, outside of the live one we got a while back, and I am nothing short of stunned. Apparently, this is a more commercially friendly sound, but I kinda don’t care; I thought all 12 tracks here were fucking great. James Hetfield’s screams somehow sound melodic, but when he actually sings, he somehow manages to glide pretty damn well on these tracks. These have some of the most heavy percussion and ridiculous guitar solos that I’ve ever heard – trust me, I’ve heard a lot of insane solos on some of the other albums, and the ones on this album stack up with the very best of them here.

I don’t really have the energy left to gush on and on about this, but I just know that it is one of the most satisfying 5s I get to give yet. I’m so glad this album wasn’t just Enter Sandman and a bunch of mediocrity. What a fucking stunner of an album. 10/10, at least to me.

Well, he got me again.

Last time we got a Leonard Cohen album, I mentioned the weight of a life long lived bearing down on me, but that doesn’t apply as much here – he was only 36 at the time of making this album. By comparison, that’s rather short. However, the allegory I wrote of seeing music as art in that classical sense still applies rather deeply here, to me.

This is an album of poetry, and while it’s not an album of a life long lived, it is an album guided by experience, hope, heartbreak, and a bit more. In a way, it feels like the midway point; obviously, he couldn’t have known that at the time of writing and composing these, but so much of what guides his spiritual belief in You Want It Darker is present here, without the life stories that lead to their definitive definitions in that album.

To cut to the point, I’m rather shocked at the quality of these lyrics – I’ll still need to dive more deeply into them, but the imagery present here simply paints a picture that I still don’t feel like I can fully articulate, appreciate and comprehend. In terms of the instrumentals, I’m at least glad to hear a slightly lighter overall sound on this album; there’s some brighter instruments spread throughout that keep this from feeling overwhelmingly dreary.

I could keep trying to go on, but I just deeply, deeply enjoyed this. It’s a damn good album, and I’d be a fool to give it anything other than a 5.

That’s a very good 4.

This is my first proper White Stripes album, and all I can say is… I really wish Seven Nation Army wasn’t the big song for them, because it undermines their talent as a band that can cover this wide of a musical net. The variety of instrumentals and genres and soundscapes covered here is incredibly cool and really enjoyable to me. Blue Orchid, ironically, is sort of a bad tone setter – it makes the album feel like it’s gonna be a full rock album, but when it immediately jumps into xylophones and marimbas and maracas and all of these other instruments, it really unlocks the potential of the album.

There’s great stuff on here, but I think my favorite one was The Denial Twist; it felt like a damn Cage the Elephant song a few years early, and I loved that a lot. Little Ghost is a close second for me; it’s a goofy country style song, and I’m a sucker for that kind of sound. Overall, though, this is a pretty damn good album. It’s not a 5 off of a first listen; I think there’s just a few too many filler tracks in here (Red Rain, in particular, is egregious about this) to make the entire album feel as satisfying as it could have been, but it can absolutely grow on me. It’s a VERY good 4, though.

I liked it a lot, but I’m just at a 4.

Ultimately, I do think that lived up to the hype – it really picked up after the first 2 tracks, and I thought most of the album afterward was pretty damn good. It’s not like, world-changing to me or anything; I’m sure it hit a lot harder in 1968, since these tricks have since been done to death by a number of bands, but this is pretty fucking innovative for its time.

Heroin, is of course, the standout track; that thumping drum that acts as a heartbeat, the swirling instrumentation growing into a full blown cacophonic panic, while the vocals go on without a care – it’s crazy to make that in 1968. I do think the last track kinda falls flat, but in a way, I like that it does; a very untraditional closing track for a very untraditional album for its time.

I don’t have extremely glowing praise, mainly because I still think I need to dive deeper into the lyrics, but I did really end up liking this. It’s a very strong 4, and it could be a 5 with time for me.

I’m at a 3.5 that I just don’t think I can round up to a 4.

Really, the biggest thing this album has going against it is a lack of complete consistency. I’m not opposed to bucking traditionalism and having wild tempo shifts and mood shifts within individual songs, because when this album does it, it usually does it remarkably well, and tends to make sense within the lyrics of each track. It just never keeps a model of consistency in the quality of those shifts, and it stems entirely from her vocals.

Her vocals, for most of this album, are usually pretty good, but there are times when, much like the compositions themselves, it just strains a little too far one way or the other to the point of either breaking, or sounding a little shaky. It’s very apparent when she tries to do those stair step vocals to pitch up or pitch down; it’s not consistent, and it’s not as clean as one would hope. Regardless, though, her vocals don’t ruin the songs at all, they’re just noticeable in a way that doesn’t vibe with my musical sensibilities. I love having vocalists blend in perfectly to the music, and she just doesn’t do it consistently enough here to overlook it.

With all of that said, I think the instrumentals are great, the lyrics are a little weird at times (what in the fuck is “Decembery ice” other than a desperately needed adjective-noun pair) but mostly pretty solid, and the vibes of the album are good. I really did enjoy most of this album, and I’d honestly recommend it; someone will absolutely overlook all of these perceived flaws and just vibe out.

For me, though, it’s just not consistent enough to bump up to a 4, and it certainly never gets anywhere near a 5 as a complete project. If I could keep it at a 3.5, I would, but I’m gonna leave it at a 3.

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

I think this was pretty damn good; it’s not perfect, and it’s admittedly probably a little closer to a 4 than it is a 5, but I respect the structure of the album and most of the songs too much to drop it down to a 4. It is a bit long, and certainly a little too loose and open at times where the clear vision of the album gets a little lost in the technicalities of the tracks.

However, that’s nitpicking – it’s weird to say “the instrumentation dilutes the story,” because that’s remarkably dumb for a rock opera. You’re not necessarily listening for the story, you’re listening for the blend of both, and for one of the earliest ones, I’d say this album does a damn good job of setting up a blueprint. It’s also a pretty solid story, going from dumb, deaf and blind to basically a cult leader, only for him to realize he is indeed just as alone as he was, pinball or otherwise. At least, that’s how I interpreted it. There are some feel good moments in here, and some not very good ones (I’m stunned at the molestation, really), but that’s what any good plot should have.

I just liked it a lot – again, it’s not perfect, and I do think 74 minutes is a bit self-serving, especially with a few songs that kind of do nothing other than re-iterate a plot point or two, but regardless of that, what’s here is a super good listen. At the very least, the instrumentation here is great, and while this doesn’t quite hit the superb highs of Who’s Next, there’s enough moments where everything just glides to forget about the looser parts of the album. I’m totally fine with bumping it up to a 5, but it’s certainly a lot closer to a 4.5 than it is a full 5 for me.

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

I dunno, there was just something deeply entrancing about that album to me. I’ve heard of Norah Jones before this, but I’ve never heard her sing. Her voice just has such control to it while maintaining a softness that still commands a bit of authority. It is the anchor that keeps this album glued together. In terms of the instrumentation; I get the vibe – big jazzy nightclub atmosphere with a distinctly 50s/60s mood behind it. It works perfectly for this album, but it does get a little draining after about 9 or 10 songs, hence the 4.5.

There’s a few covers sprinkled in here, and the one that stuck to me the most is Cold Cold Heart – that’s a song I’ve heard, but I could never remember it by name or anything. I’m glad it popped up. I think the runtime is my only complaint here, or at the very least, a lack of variance that keeps the album distinctly fresh near the end. Regardless, I thought it was great. Some super standout tracks, and even if it leans into coffee shop fodder a few times, I’m just a sucker for the atmosphere. I’m totally fine with bumping this up to a 5. I am surprised it was as big of a hit as it was though.

It’s like a 10, probably.

I’ve never heard this album in full until today. I’m an idiot. Perhaps the titular American idiot. I never knew there was a big running story and plotline and thread here; I’ve only ever heard the big tracks – American Idiot, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, and Wake Me Up When September Ends. I always knew there was a Broadway musical, but I never made the connection somehow.

This was fucking awesome. There’s not a single missed beat here – from those opening guitar riffs on American Idiot, through the entire running plot of “home sucks, I’m leaving, let’s party, I’m in love, oh shit, never mind, this sucks, I’m going back home” that’s portrayed brilliantly throughout the lyrics and instrumentation of every single track until the sort of epilogue that is “Whatsername,” and the peace that Jesus has finally come to after all his St. Jimmy escapades.

It’s a very malleable plot, but what really drives it are these damn songs; every single one of them is fantastic, from the compositions, the guitar riffs, the extremely high energy, and especially in the lyrics. I now understand why all of these are paired so specifically on streaming. You cannot hear one of them without the other, and you really can’t listen to some of these songs by themselves, unless you remember the sort of context of the album. It really is a damn play.

One small thing about the plot itself… I dunno, it’s a little weird in the end, given how often people find success outside of their hometown in my experience, but in terms of this hellish post-9/11 suburbia that Jesus finds himself in, maybe he really is just more comfortable at home. Regardless of that, I thought this was fucking spectacular. Absolutely worthy of the hype. Really dumb of me to never listen before now, but I now feel as cleansed as Jesus did at the end of this album. One of the easiest 5s yet.

I’m surprisingly at a 5.

I deeply ripped into Kraftwerk for what I perceived as minimalism on Trans-Europe Express. I haven’t gone back to the album to see if my opinion has changed, but this album did way more for me than Trans-Europe Express.

For me, this just has a way more sonically pleasing soundscape, it’s got a good variety of tone and instrumentation, I think the synth work evolves throughout each track in a way that doesn’t feel like an FL Studio sample loop on repeat for 6 minutes, and ultimately, everything here just felt like had more character and more groove to it. There was way more depth in just Autobahn by itself than the entirety of Trans-Europe Express for me.

The back half of the album is really nice too; I love the dichotomy between Kometenmelodie 1 and 2, and while Mitternacht kinda fell into the repetition of Trans-Europe Express, it never got gratingly long to be an issue. Morgenspaziergang is really nice too; I love the transition from the synth work into the real instruments, and it does feel like a proper end to this journey on the Autobahn.

Ultimately, this album DID have the scenery changes that I felt weren’t present on Trans-Europe Express, and I enjoyed my ride on the Autobahn much, much more. This is 43 minutes of super chill music, and I liked every single second of it. It’s a 5. A damn good one, at that.

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

I don’t really have too much to add; that’s a super competent bossa nova album. I don’t think there was a bad track here – even the Parade song, for as dumb and goofy and cheesy as it was, sort of won me over with how brazenly out of place it is. It definitely didn’t need to be on the album, but it’s not like it’s a bad listen.

This album never does anything to get up into the territory of a 5 – there’s no rousing soundscapes, no signature songs, and nothing that especially sticks out, save for (at least to me) My Foolish Heart, which just kinda won me over. However, I think this maintains a pretty solid standard of quality throughout, and the vibes just connected perfectly with me. It’s a driving album, it’s a study album, and it’s a “do chores” album, but I enjoyed it all the same. Solid, solid 4.