Reviews by guggmo

It’s a 2.5 that I’m incredibly tempted to round down to a 2, but I’ll be nice and keep it at a 3.

When this album hits, it hits pretty well; instrumentally, I think the very best songs on this album click together perfectly, carried pretty handily by the steel guitar and the percussion keeping everything melodically stable. The fast-paced tracks on this are really fun and enjoyable to listen to. Vocally, I don’t think there’s enough emotion or variance in his voice; the soft-spoken thing works on a few tracks, but when you do it for almost every track, it makes everything blend together in a bad and unmemorable way.

That’s the problem with this album: there are too many tracks that blend together in a bad and unmemorable way, and that’s not good for an album experience. The amount of times that the album just gets annoyingly repetitive from both a lyrical and vocal standpoint is so often that it’s just too hard to ignore for me.

The crazy part is that I think I liked about 7 of the 12 tracks here, but for 4 of them to be some of the most boring tracks I’ve heard in a way that they quite literally dragged no emotion out of me but pure disappointment is not good. Still though, those 7 are good to listen to, but not great, and that’s where I’m stuck on a 3 for this.

I mean, I knew it would be a 5, I just didn’t expect to want to give it a 6 or higher.

I have consistently said that Songs in The Key of Life is one of the best albums ever made, and my respect for Stevie’s work is off the charts; from Superstition to Sir Duke to Overjoyed and some of his collaborations into the 90s, 2000s, and 2010s, it’s very hard for me to come up with a more consistent artist. He might be the GOAT, and this album is just another masterclass in that.

I don’t know quite how to gush about it; everything here is just classic Stevie, from the funky instrumental of Too High, to the guitar on Visions, the all-timer that is Living for the City, the key changes on Golden Lady, the bassline on Higher Ground, the backing vocals on Jesus Children of America, the incredible vocal performance on All in Love is Fair, the percussion and feel-good attitude of Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing, and the bombastic (& slightly long) outro to He’s Misstra Know-It-All.

Easy as hell 5.

I’m feeling a 4.

There’s just something nice about this album to me; maybe it’s the more intimate nature of the production, and the ability to so clearly hear both him and his guitar in a way that just enhances both. It could be the fact that there are occasionally audible “flaws” on this album that just add to that sort of intimate nature.

I think the weakest part of this album is its vocals, but I don’t think they’re ever bad; sometimes they’re just kind of plain or not as melodic as the guitar or the lyrics are asking for, but there are moments where it all clicks together super nicely. That guitar playing is kinda crazy though; it’s just fun to hear the strumming at work without the usual percussion or other instruments to cover up the more nuanced and technical parts to actually make it sound like that. Just some really nice acoustic stuff here, and it worked really well for me.

It’s a 3.5 that I think I have to round down to a 3.

This album is weird. Not like Morrissey-style weird where something just felt unappealing and unnatural, but like, properly weird. There’s appealing stuff on this album, and I liked a lot of it. I think it’s just kind of disjointed to me; sometimes the vocals clash with the lyrics and vice-versa, sometimes the instrumentation doesn’t quite fit the lyrical vision, or at worst, sometimes it’s just kinda boring to me.

I don’t know if there’s necessarily a bad track on this album, but it’s a really diverse record that I honestly think doesn’t go far enough with its bolder choices. If you’re gonna try to be this innovative for 1967, then go all in, because it feels disconnected in a way that doesn’t melodically marry everything quite right to me. Certainly not bad though; I feel good with a 3.

It’s a 2.5 that I’m gonna round up to a 3.

I don’t think there’s a bad track on this album, but when this sound starts to lose its luster, it loses it FAST. There are some really nice tracks here, but by the end, too much of it just started to blend together for me. Solid instrumentation, some occasional vocal standouts, but a lot of this just feels really really paint-by-numbers to me, and not in a way that hit with my sensibilities too often. Sort of disappointing, but not bad, just… plain.

Feeling a 3.5 and rounding it up to a 4 with this one.

I appreciate the brevity, the self-containment of each track, and I think I really respect the production throughout this album; there’s just little neat touches to each song that make them each have their own identity. I don’t think the individual songs on the album are super memorable, but they have some standout moments, and it’s a really good experience.

I can kind of see why this might have flopped in 1968; it’s just different from some of the contemporaries of this same time period that we’ve heard, and there are some points where the melodies and the catchiness take a backseat to what are sometimes baffling lyrics (I’m still kinda trying to figure out Track 1) but that’s the sort of thing that goes over much better in music nowadays. Pretty good album.

This album is weird to me.

Objectively, I don’t think there’s a song that SOUNDS bad on this album; I think the production work and the instrumentation across the board is really well done, really varied, and I’ll probably add a lot of songs from this to my big playlist just because they’re super easy listening.

Lyrically and vocally is where I think this album is kind of weak; it’s not egregiously bad (save for Bengali in Platforms), but it’s the least compelling part of this album to me, even with Morrissey’s super smooth voice. I’ve never heard a Smiths record or a Morrissey record before this, but I think I enjoyed this. I also know nothing about the guy’s personal views, and I don’t know if I really care to.

The problem is that I just kind of found a lot of the songs to be… weirdly unremarkable? I don’t know if it’s a lack of focus on my part, or if I was too hypnotized by the instrumentation, but even when the album has these sort of bombastic guitar solos that capture the ear, those moments just sort of faded away to me after. I do think it’s a great sounding album, but it just isn’t sticking to me in a memorable enough way; it’s a 3.5 that FEELS like it should be a 4, but I’m going to round it down to a 3, even if I’ll probably enjoy most of these songs on shuffle when they come up.

It’s a super strong 4 that I’m gonna round up to a 5, just for my tastes.

There are some points early in the album where the production is lacking just that one extra bit for my tastes, but when this album clicks and puts it all together, it’s some of the best country/Americana stuff I’ve heard in a long time. The consequences of “bro country” coming into the scene in the late 90s and early 2000s need to be studied someday, because this is a really good album to me, and I need more stuff like this. Red Dirt Girl? That’s the type of country music I need, not bullshit about trying “that” in a small town, whatever “that” is.

The album is just a little too long for me. Could’ve cut it down to like, 8 or 9 tracks, but there’s really not a bad one here. I enjoyed everything on this album; I genuinely think it hits 12 for 12 for me, and that’s why I’m going with a 5 regardless of its slower moments or its perceived flaws. It’s good music, and that’s what matters.

As an entire album, it’s a really nice 4, but I think tracks 6-10 by themselves are a 5.

I just wasn’t really vibing with the first 4 tracks too much; they felt a little slow, a little too lyrically dense, a little preachy, and not quite “poppy” enough. Track 5 started to bring in the energy, but it was about 2 or 3 minutes too long. Track 6 and onward, though… hoo. That’s really good stuff. Big difference from the front half and the back half; the more melodic instrumentation on the latter half of the album just sucked me in and had me FEELING that music really deeply.

I think the incredibly solid (but still just kind of OK for me) first half does drag it down to a 4 for me, but it’s no lower than that. Really good stuff here.

I’ve never heard this album in full. I’ve never listened to a Beatles album in full, really. I know the biggest hits from the band, and that’s really about it.

This is a 10. Like, if I could give this a 10, it would get a 10. Instead, I have to give it a 5. I could try to gush about it, but really, I’m just kinda sitting here, stunned after the ending section of tracks that make up the final 8 of the album, wondering why I’ve never bothered to really go through The Beatles discography like that. This album is a genuine triumph of music, and I would imagine that for its time, it set the highest fucking bar imaginable; it's probably a bar that musicians today are still trying to reach, because for 2024, this still holds up unbelievably and timelessly well. It is indeed worth all the hype.

That medley just hits like a fucking truck, man. This was their last album? That shit’s crazy. That’s gotta be the best final album ever. Just… wow.

It’s another 3.5 that I think I’m gonna round up to a 4.

It’s just a really solid album to me – I don’t think there’s a bad song on here, just a few repetitive ones where either the lyrics don’t really do enough or the instrumentation stays a bit too grounded, but I liked a lot of this. Really fun guitar, some occasionally cool vocal melodies, and ultimately, just a really good sounding album that sometimes escapes my sensibilities, but still feels nice to listen to.

White Rabbit should have been longer.

I feel good with a 3.5 on this one, but I'm gonna round it up to a 4.

There’s not really a bad song here, but there are moments where this album just feels a bit empty, whether it's an outro going a bit long, or the vocals just feeling too monotone, and it makes the songs drag on just a little bit in a way that kind of dilutes them for me. When this album is hitting though, it hits really well and really smooth, with some of the best guitar playing I’ve heard from a 70s album so far. I don’t normally check the reviews on this site too much, but it’s a testament to their variety and their sound that someone’s favorite could be another person’s worst and vice-versa.

I don’t think it can ever bump up to a 5 for my tastes, but what’s here is really nice, and definitely a recommended listen.

I knew coming in that I would give this one a 5 unless something shifted my opinion of it, and honestly, if I could give this shit a 6 or higher, I would.

TPaB is still the masterpiece, the gold standard, the highest of high bars for me in terms of Kendrick’s albums, but I don’t think I’ve ever properly appreciated the narrative arc of this album until this listen; doing this whole 1,001 albums experience has made me feel more attentive to music than I have in a long time, and this album has, by far, had the biggest boost for me because of that. There is seriously not a missed beat or lyric or breath on almost every track here – the only one I’m still iffy on is Real, but I just don’t think that song will ever click with my sensibilities.

I’ve also never really paid attention to the bonus tracks that are on the deluxe version, but Now or Never just feels like it should be the album closer, to just end the album on an incredibly bright note. I don’t wanna gush too much about this album, but it really is a piece of art, and it’s incredibly deserving of a 5.

It’s a 4 that falls just short of me being able to round up to a 5.

I think basically every song here manages to create a super cool atmosphere, and the album succeeds brilliantly at maintaining that atmosphere through its instrumental choices, its production choices, and how snappy most of the songs feel.

The only reason I can’t bump this up to a 5 is because of how it occasionally slips out of that atmosphere in a way that affected me as a listener; I think the choice to go for quiet vocals on tracks 3 & 4 is super cool, but they were too quiet to have a real presence in the song for me. I think some of the outros and intros go a little too long here and there. At Night, in particular, felt like it was just kind of stalling to artificially build up tension to me.

When this album just hits on vibes alone though, it’s a super enjoyable experience that feels like it’s shifting between the 80s and 90s – I really cannot speak enough to the production choices throughout this album. It’s a super cool 4, it could totally be a 5, but I think it’s just not quite there for me.

It’s a really nice 4.

Ultimately, there’s just something about Bob Dylan’s music that’ll probably stop me from giving him a 5, maybe ever; sometimes his voice isn’t melodic enough, sometimes his songs go too long, sometimes I have no idea what the hell he’s talking about… but on this record he seemed pretty good across the board. Really inventive and evocative lyrics of images that have long since left the public eye, and references that are ironically probably too intellectually driven now in a world that values TikTok celebrity compared to poetic license (or at least that’s what Bob Dylan would probably say if he had another fucking verse on Desolation Row).

I dunno, I just really liked the album. I wouldn’t say it has any standout all-timer songs, even with the super lauded Like a Rolling Stone, but there’s only really one or two misses on this album for anyone willing to sit through it. I just can’t go up to a 5 though; some of these ARE long as hell.

I think I’m gonna go with a 4, but a low 4.

After listening to Tricky’s solo album Maxinquaye, I think I’ve come to my own conclusion that he absolutely works better as part of a group; his rapping is a genuine highlight on this album compared to the absolutely bleak and dreary style he showed on that album. There are still some misses on this album, but my biggest thing is that it’s simply not soul-numbingly boring like Maxinquaye was, as even the “misses” at least have pretty fun production and a few moments of catching the ear in a smooth way; some of it didn’t hook me, but it definitely wasn’t bad.

This is a genuine showcase of pretty cool production that would become a bit more apparent and a bit more mainstream as the 90s went along, and for 1991, a lot of what’s here is still pretty infused with the sort of soul/funk sounds of the 70s, so it’s a fun blend of both styles. A genuinely enjoyable listen across the board (except for Lately), and I’m pretty satisfied to give it a 4. It does just enough to be higher than a 3.

It’s a really cool 4 that I'm REALLY tempted to give a 5 for the hell of it, but I'll hold back.

I haven’t listened to almost all of Missy Elliott’s solo work before this, and that's completely my fault. She popped off on this album, and I'm a moron for not listening to her before now. There are some songs I’m not sure I’ll go back to, but that comes down to little things like “well, the beat didn’t go hard enough for me” or “I can’t be caught dead listening to this in public” (see: Pussycat), but there’s a lot of variety on this album that just hits my musical tastes right. I could try to explain myself, but when you’re vibing, you’re vibing, and I was REALLY vibing. Really fun album, with really cool production from Timbaland that sometimes misses the mark for me, but her vocals make up for it tenfold.

It’s a 5, with a few flaws here and there.

The weakest part of this album is the 3-track stretch of Invincible through Exo-Politics, which to me, tries way too hard to fit into the politically progressive rock niche that Green Day had carved into the mainstream when they dropped American Idiot. There’s something that either doesn’t click right for me, or just outright has not aged well under the lens of 2024 as compared to 2006.

The rest of this album is fucking spectacular. Take A Bow is the most electric opening track to an album I’ve heard in years, and an insanely cool tonesetter for the first 4 tracks. Soldier’s Song is fine, and it works with the backdrop of the Blair / Bush years without feeling too preachy. The last 3 (or 4, if you count Glorious) tracks are a great bit of variety, from super cool energetic bombastic pieces like Knights of Cydonia, or more atmospheric stuff like City of Delusion & Hoodoo.

I do think this album does lose its luster a little quickly, but it managed to grab it back at the end for me – realistically, that stretch of tracks 6-8 probably do round it down to a 4.5 for me, but I’d be a moron to not round it up. Fabulous stuff here.

I just don’t really know, but I think I’m at a 3.

For my tastes and my sensibilities, I think I came into this album with the wrong expectations, which is to say an evolution of the funky, polished, catchy idealism that was present on Stand!, and that expectation broke itself down very quickly. This album is a bit darker, a bit less polished, a bit less “catchy” in the sense that there’s definitely no Everyday People-esque songs on this album, and almost certainly a lack of the idealism from Stand!.

I tried to shift myself into the mood once it became apparent, but to me, there’s a sort of ethereal emptiness to this album that stopped me from ever really getting hooked in. Even with such funky instrumentation, the rougher, obviously re-recorded, re-dubbed, and re-taped vocals kept pulling me away from that instrumentation in a way that I think negatively affected my perception of the individual songs; they all felt like demo tapes to me. As an entire album, I think the looser style of the instrumentation here is very effectively realized, and with the context of the drug usage and loneliness that affected the production of this album, it’s really kind of a miracle that this exists as coherently as it does.

However, I just don’t think all of those elements hit on any of my sensibilities. There is something kind of intoxicating about this album though – I can see myself coming back to listen again and try to understand it better, but I also get the feeling this album is never going to fully click for me, and that’s where I’m stuck with a 3.

That’s a fucking great 4, wow. It’d be a 5 if we had gotten this around Halloween instead of March, and it could totally still be a 5 the more I listen to it.

There is absolutely no way you could have convinced me this album was from 1981, because from top to bottom, it feels at least a decade ahead of its time in terms of production and its general sound. The guitar work is absolutely on fucking fire here, no matter which song or which style, and the same goes for the percussion.

The only reason I can’t really give this a 5 on the first go-around is that there are a few points where the lyrics felt a bit too silly for the tone of the song, and a few points where there was a sort of emptiness carried by the instrumentation that took me out of it. Regardless, it’s at least a 4, and a great album for 1981.