Reviews by guggmo

That’s another 3 for me.

It’s really not a bad album, it’s just kind of unmemorable. I really think the production is the obvious standout here – only 2 or 3 tracks ever really fully got my attention lyrically, and the amount of mixed genres with hip-hop sensibilities does a much better (albeit admittedly less energetic) job than that shitty Kid Rock album we listened to. If we were going solely on production, it's at least a 4. Crime & Punishment is probably my standout here, either that or King of New York.

Much like some of the other albums we’ve listened to, the biggest issue is that it’s just a bit too long and a bit too repetitive in some spots to not notice, and those little moments just build up more and more every time, and that's why as a whole album, I can't go any higher than a 3.

(also i don't know where else to put this but i just kept hearing lotus juice in his voice the whole time LOL)

It’s a good, strong, technically sound 3.

There’s definitely some fun ones on this album, and when everything clicks, it clicks really nicely, but it just never retains that for super long on here, whether it’s the vocals not matching the lyrics or the lyrics not matching the instrumentation for a few extended periods. I think instrumentally, the biggest thing this album suffers from is simply the time period it’s in; Thoughts & Words would be an even more awesome track if the drums were mixed in to stand out better, and that applies to other instruments on some of the other tracks. C.T.A.-102’s ending is sick as hell, though.

Ultimately, what’s here is fun and it’s short, and each song has its own distinct flavor, which means the album doesn’t really tire itself out. Good listen, definitely some songs to come back to, but nothing higher than a 3.

Stuck with a 3 on this one – maybe something never quite clicked for me, but even though I liked a lot of this album, it either felt like Bowie was holding back a little bit vocally to try and better fit the atmosphere of the record, or that lyrically he got a little too repetitive at times in a way that kind of just distracted me from that excellent top to bottom instrumentation – what a band.

I can see what the vision was; a David Bowie soul album, and while I’d say he succeeded, those conflicts between the vocals and lyrics became just a little too distracting for me to completely stay invested in his messaging. It could definitely jump up to a 4 if something clicks right later, but I think for my tastes, a 3 feels right.

It’s a 3.5 that I think I’m going to begrudgingly round up, if only because I recognize that its biggest weakness for me is not going to be as big of a factor for some other people.

I will say, first of all, that because of the renaissance of the late 90s aesthetic and style going on right now, something about this album does feel a bit like 2024 instead of 1998. That’s not to say it’s a timeless sound, but it’s certainly a sound that feels like it’s in vogue again, and that helped a lot with this album.

My biggest thing with this album is the vocals, and I know that shouldn’t be a dig in light of really strong top to bottom production (except for The Happy End), but it really did just drag me out of a few of the songs. There are points when the vocals click really well, but when the lyrics are great and the vocal passion isn’t quite there to match it, something just doesn’t work well for me. However, that’s me – this album is certainly deserving of a 4, and I’m sure it would get there on a subsequent listen when something just clicks better for me, and I’ll round it up now to be fair.

It’s an easy 5.

I’ve never listened to the other tracks on this album besides the big 3 of Shout, Everybody Wants To Rule The World, and Head Over Heels, but almost every other track here really perfectly complements those 3. The one song on this album I wasn’t really feeling was Listen, but I’m going to treat that as kind of an epilogue track, because it sure feels like this album should have ended on Head Over Heels and that applause-filled outro.

Obviously, my opinion might be a bit skewed because we just did a Kid Rock album, but I felt quite literally spiritually cleansed of the stench of Devil Without a Cause by the fantastic saxophone in The Working Hour, and the album just stayed at pure bliss for me after that. I cannot believe that one-two punch of the outro to The Working Hour & the intro to Everybody Wants To Rule The World, because it sent me into the damn stratosphere. Super deserved 5, and a fantastic album.

This is the worst Beastie Boys album I’ve ever listened to.

OK, fine, I’ll be real with you, it’s a completely soulless, uninspired, mediocre 2 that probably has at least one or two guilty pleasures on it, if only for their presence in the cultural zeitgeist of the time, or in the obnoxious case of Cowboy, a genuine acknowledgement that there is something catchy to it, however minor, if only for the obvious sample and how Neil Cicierega has used it in the years since.

From listening solely to the clean version, and refusing to hear Kid Rock openly use the N-word on the original final track of this album, what I find is that this is my “rap / country / rock fusion whatever the fuck genre we’re defining this as” version of Apocalypse Dudes, in which if you completely ignore the fucking horribly dated lyrics and just pluck one song from this album at a time while exercising or something else, you will end up with a small but effective boost of energy in terms of having not terrible guitar and drum work, even with Kid Rock just screaming on more than half the tracks.

As an entire album experience though, it is objectively so fucking boring, so draining, so long, so repetitive, and so similar for most of its tracks, that the only reason it’s even partially getting a 2 is that there are at least a few fleeting moments of actual tiny headbops that come in and out, unlike that fucking awful Tricky album (Maxinquaye is still worse, yes, sue me).

Out of a complete lack of respect for Kid Rock as a person though, even though this album is a 2 in my mind, I'm going to rate it a 1 anyway, because fuck you, Kid Rock.

It’s a really, really competent and super nice 3.

I think, ultimately, my big thing with the album is that most of its tracks, while technically and instrumentally incredibly solid, with a great sound, and foundationally good to listen to, don’t do enough to stay memorable past those moments of bliss. Vocally, I find Tom Verlaine to be… I don’t know, just not the right fit for the great instrumentation on this album. He’s not bad, necessarily, but it feels more like a bit of Bob Dylan mixed with David Byrne to me, and that just doesn’t vibe well with these instruments.

In that sense, if you can’t keep me engaged with all the parts of your soundscape, it’s harder to hook me into the songs, and most of them never fully hooked me. The guitar work on this album would get a 5/5 if we were going only by that, but as an entire package, I just don’t think there are that many memorable songs to return to that would justify giving this any higher than a 3, but I could be completely wrong.

It’s an incredibly bold and incredibly stupid choice to put two of your 4 worst songs (Skunk & Fuck Shit Up) at the very front of the album, but somehow, what emerges from it is a shockingly nice 36 minute jam session full of really good, diverse energy.

There are still points where the production is a fucking cacophonic mess, but those moments show up less and less after Fuck Shit Up, and by Track 7, the album actually becomes a fun listen up until the final 2 tracks, where it goes back into the bad habits of Skunk & Fuck Shit Up. Really experimental, avant-garde, greasy grungy garage rock that somehow hits on some of my sensibilities from about Tracks 5 through 14, and that’s most of the album, which is a miracle after that abysmal opening.

To put it bluntly, this is the album Apocalypse Dudes fucking wishes it could have been, and it pulls off a bigger comeback than the Patriots did in Super Bowl 51. It is a 3 as a whole, but the good songs on this album, I would genuinely rate a 4.

It’s a resounding 3 that has flashes of a really nice 4, but never ever quite gets there.

Ultimately, the biggest problem this album suffers from is its runtime, but it’s not in the sense that every track goes too long, it’s just that SOME of them do, and those extended periods where the song feels like it’s continuing just for the sake of padding or noise are what really drag this album down. There are some skips, don’t get me wrong, but I thought at least most of this album had really really enjoyable melodies (both vocally and instrumentally) behind them. The problem is, even with its best tracks, there are some moments of lyrical futility where it’s either full of empty platitudes or moments of repetition that are too often to not eventually notice.

I will say, though, from track 8 onward, the album ends on a really nice tone, and if the album were more like its final 5 (and first 2) tracks, I’d probably be pointing in the direction of a 4. It’s just that the other 5 tracks either drag on too long, or they’re just too boring for my tastes. It’s definitely not a bad album though, you just have to be in the right mood to endure some of its longer stuff.

That’s an incredibly tightly packed 28 minutes, with a strong variety of subject matters and music styles. A lot of it is held together by the same instruments throughout, but ultimately the album is just nice, and lyrically, it just feels way more in line with what I wish music still was. I’m not opposed to pop melodies or catchy hooks, but just hearing the lyrics on this album makes me want more of this type of poetic license, and not just super contemporary IG captions that everyone wants to write nowadays.

It’s actually a 5 for me – there’s maybe one or two skips, but ultimately, what a triumph of an album, and a masterclass in how to maximize the balance between being meaningful and being melodically appealing without feeling too preachy or too long.

It certainly helps that I actually understood half the references on the album.

I did something I don’t normally do with these albums, and that’s go back to the first few songs after finishing. I’m glad I did, because I definitely came into this album with the wrong mindset – it originally clicked for me around Track 5 that the sort of cacophony I was embedded in was a very controlled and intentional chaos, which became incredibly apparent by Track 7, and from that point on, once they broke through to me, I thought tracks 8 & 9 were a great string of strong melodies and fun vocals, but that kind of started to fizzle out with how awkward the last 2 tracks felt.

As soon as the album ended, I went back to the first 4 and definitely had a better time with them, except that the Rolling Stones cover was still just a little too different for my tastes. All in all, though, I’d say…weirdly enough, it’s a 3.5 that I’m gonna go ahead and round up to a 4, if only because they managed to pull me out of whatever biases or predispositions I had, and made me really listen to what they were going for, and in that sense, I appreciate the hell out of this album for doing that.

There’s definitely flaws, namely that I just think it’s still a bit off putting near the end, and that sometimes it IS too chaotic, but it’s a really tightly produced album that takes a bit to crack through, and it might not ever crack through for some people, but when you get it, you just get it, and it makes the album work.

I think, much like Synchronicity, I’m gonna go with a light 4, but I think this one’s a little closer to the side of a 5 for me.

As far as the instrumentation goes, I think this is one of the nicest albums we’ve had yet in terms of pure easy listening. Vocally, I do think there were some times where I would’ve loved a little more gruff in his voice to better fit the mood of some of the songs, but other than that, his biggest crime was just sometimes staying a little too monotone for me.

I think my big issue with this album is that it just goes a little long, and like I’ve said, if the sound starts to lose its luster, you start to lose the listener, and there are some tracks on here that either dragged on, or suffered from the infamous “the first minute is the entire song” problem. When this album hits though, it fucking hits, and I can’t say I ever really got bored of the album like that. Is it generic in a few spots? Of course, but when everyone was hitting around this sort of sound in the 90s, there are bound to be a few. I’d definitely recommend it, and I think some of the album’s weaker spots for me would be strong points for others.

It’s… probably a really light 4, at least for me.

As an entire album, I think it does do a good job of keeping a consistent sound (except for Mother, what the fuck), but something could never fully hook me in to the whole thing. In terms of individual tracks, there are great ones on this album – obviously Every Breath You Take was a massive hit, but King of Pain & Wrapped Around Your Finger are both really, really good songs.

I don’t really have a good sense of The Police from before this album, and I have a much better sense of Sting’s solo work in the 90s, but it’s very apparent to me that this is a crowning achievement for both the band and himself, and I do think a lot of these songs have held up incredibly well for being 41 years old. It's honestly way closer to a 3 than a 5 for me, but I'm just satisfied enough to bump it up.

That’s an instant 5.

I have said before that the most important thing an album can do is to make you feel something, and… this album made me feel a lot of things. To some ears, I can understand it; occasionally, there is an incredible repetition in the soundscape that lingers on for a bit too long, and for those ears, that’s the sort of thing that takes them out of being engaged.

For my money, though, there was not a dull moment in this album – I think almost every track here pulled me into its mood and its lyrics, and that is a testament to the amount of detail and effort poured into this entire album, whether it’s from Thom Yorke’s vocals, the incredible guitar & drums, or just the mixing that made everything stand out that much more. Just a fabulous, fabulous record.

I needed the sound of this album badly. When I think of the 1980s, this is the sort of instrumentation I think of, but it also blends in so much of what I love from the early 90s. It’s a great album to just throw on and listen to even if you only care about the instrumentation, but lyrically and vocally, I think every song here has some kind of validity, whether it’s in how they made me feel, or in terms of its actual subject matter.

I’m gonna go with a 5, if only because this album really lightened up my kind of stressed out mood, and I think it’s just hitting on all of my musical sensibilities. It’s not perfect, but I do think it’s much closer to a 5 than it is a 4.

I am deeply struggling to find the words to say about this album.

It’s very rare for me to think of music as art in the classical sense – the way people get emotional at seeing the Mona Lisa or the Sistine Chapel, where they can feel the weight of history and the absolute mastery of a craft come upon them, mainly because I usually just don’t feel that when it comes to art. I can certainly feel emotion in music, but usually that emotion comes from the passion of a voice or the lyrical content.

This album may be the only time I have felt the weight of a life long lived bear down on me in musical form, and in many ways, it’s a weight I’m not sure I can accurately hold or carry. In some strange way, I feel too young to truly connect to this album and its subject material in full, but I deeply appreciate every song on here and the man behind them.

In that sense, I have almost no choice but to give this album a 5.

The very definition of a 3 – I think all the songs here sound really nice, but there’s only a few real standouts. I think it suffers from the general thing that ‘60s albums tend to do, which is really weird panning that kind of sacrifices the original vision of a song, but it doesn’t make them bad, necessarily. It’s a solid listen, but there’s just not enough to really warrant coming back to a lot of the tracks.

I only listened to the original 6 songs from the first EP release, and I think that's the best way to listen to it, because that is an electrifying 22 minutes.

The energy on this album is off the charts, and once it gets going, it’s like a fucking freight train. I ripped on Apocalypse Dudes for not having enough variance, at least to my ears, but this album has enough variance in its short run time to keep everything fresh. I can see why Kurt Cobain liked this so much – there is a truly infectious feeling to it, and for my money, it doesn’t overstay its welcome.

I’m gonna go with a 4 – I thought Chain That Door was kind of boring compared to the rest of the album, and I do think there is a hint of repetition in the styles of each song that does become a bit apparent once that initial wave of energy washes away. I still fucking loved that, though.

This album is a test in patience that I’m just not sure I really have.

I can commend a lot of things about this album; I think the guitar playing is fabulous throughout, I think the instrumental interludes are a fantastic showcase of that, and ultimately I don’t think it’s actually that bad of an album. It’s just not my kind of album.

It doesn’t hit on that many of my sensibilities, but much like a game demo, I’m smart enough to tell when something is probably good, but just not for me. I found that, for me, a lot of this album just felt too similar, a bit too boring, and a bit too monotone. I’m sure for another person, they’ll be able to appreciate those parts of it; to ignore the lyrics, ignore the slow prodding tempos that make songs feel even longer than they already are, and simply feel the music in a way that I just can’t. There are points in this album where it all clicks for me, and those moments, while brief, are really nice.

Realistically, for my tastes, I think it’s a 2.5 that I’m going to, perhaps begrudgingly, round up to a 3, if only because I recognize that it has something going for it that just doesn’t fit my vibe. It’s way better than Apocalypse Dudes, at least.

It’s another one of those albums where I end up at a 3.5 and I just can’t round it up to a 4.

Don’t get me wrong, for 1965, I think this is great lyricism across the board, and I think the first 7 tracks have such a great energy and sound and tempo to them. It’s the last 4 tracks where the emphasis is so heavily put on the lyrics at the sacrifice of the layered production of those first 7 tracks that kind of drag the album down from hitting that 4 for me. Take for example, “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Smiling),” because it might have some of my favorite lyrics I’ve heard in a song yet, but the absolute minimalist production on it just doesn’t hit on my sensibilities, and that’s where you sort of lose me as a listener.

It could definitely go up to a 4 on some subsequent listens, but I don’t think I can bump it for now.