Reviews by guggmo

It’s hard to find a good way to describe how I feel about this album. It’s certainly not bad; I think it’s one of the best albums we’ve hit upon during this experience. It’s just a lot different than what I was expecting, and it’s a little hard to find a way to really convey that.

Without question, this is fabulous production from top to bottom – I think the lyricism on all these tracks hits the right balance between serious, funny, introspective, and so on. The sampling throughout the album has such a wide and vivid range of styles and soundscapes that really shows just how much the Beastie Boys cared about respecting the genre and its evolving sound through the 90s as white artists.

If I had any nitpicks, it would be that there’s maybe a few too many instrumentals on the album? They’re all great, but they do sometimes fail to keep the energy of a previous track going. There’s also the amount of vocal distortion, which may or may not be a Beastie Boys staple, but I found it sometimes undercut the more serious lyrical moments of the album at times.

In terms of a ranking, I think it’s closer to a 5 than it is a 4, even with my nitpicks and my expectations being kinda thrown out the window. From front to back, I think it’s a good listen, and even if it could’ve been trimmed down a little bit, I think it deserves its place in the 90s rap canon as much as any other critically acclaimed rap album of its time.

Completely competent drum and bass that I listened to while doing my morning routine.

Just a 2.

This may be harsh, but... I really think it’s actually the worst album we’ve listened to so far, at least for my sensibilities.

I think my main problem is that it’s just really boring. Like, with the other “bad” albums we’ve had, they keep a consistent theme, there’s at least an attempt at some energy, and there’s usually at least one song where I go, “you know what, that was kinda catchy,” but on this one… it’s just not there at all. The most important thing an album can do is make you feel something; the “bad” albums got me to feel, even if it was anger at repetition or never evolving a sound, but for this one, I felt quite literally no emotion whatsoever.

I feel like I’ve just listened to a bootleg album composed entirely of raps and instruments from old 90s CD sample discs; you know, the ones filled with nonsensical verses or random lines that ended up in like, Marvel vs. Capcom soundtracks and stuff. The problem is, there’s no way to make any of these songs actually interesting to my ear. Every track here feels like it’s got absolutely no energy, whether it’s in the production, the tempo, or the vocals, and that just goes against a lot of my musical sensibilities.

It’s the first 1 I’m going to give – it’s just that boring to me.

That’s a 5, through and through, and if we were going by 10, to me, it’d be a 10/10. It comes as no surprise to me that this is the best-selling album of the 21st century thus far, and I feel like a moron for never listening to the whole thing until today.

I really truly think this is the album that defined the sounds of the 2010s, for better or for worse, and the fact that she was only 21 is insane to me. I loved every single song on here, and obviously, I’m a little biased because of growing up on the big hits, but there’s some incredibly good stuff in between that I had never heard until this listen. I think every part of this album, from the production, to the lyrics, to the vocals, hits on everything I love about music. Perhaps, in some subconscious sense, the amount of times I heard the singles from this album on the radio, or on YouTube, or in some movie or ad, is what shaped so many of my musical tendencies as I grew up. Just a spectacular album, and for me, a timeless one.

I feel like I just got drugged by David Byrne.

I’ve never listened to a Talking Heads album in full, but I thought I knew some of the eccentricities of the band (and namely Byrne), but clearly I wasn’t fully prepared. This album goes in so many directions lyrically that it kinda distracted me from REALLY great production that feels ripped a little more out of 1987 than 1977. I’m not complaining about the album, necessarily; I think it’s a good listen, but you really have to be in the mindset for it, and you have to accept that shit will get kinda wacky.

It's like a 3.5 that I don't think I can really round up to a 4, but I think it's a good album, and it’s certainly an album that I think needs another listen or two to really get and appreciate more.

Sympathy for the Devil set a major tone for a completely different sounding album. I was expecting a sort of big heavy rock album, and instead, I kinda got a sort of pseudo country album mixed with some other flavors and rock stylings, but it’s an album I’m totally down with.

I’ve never listened to a full Rolling Stones album before this, but I thought the production here was incredibly good, and even though it didn’t retain the same energy that Sympathy for the Devil kicked off with, the sort of country/folksy/blues sensibilities that wash over the rest of the album just fit really nicely for me, and I liked it a lot.

It’s a strong 4; certainly worth a listen, and I’m sure that the tracks I wasn’t fully vibing with might be someone else’s favorite; that’s a testament to the pretty good variance in this album.

It’s a really, really nice 3 that I’m going to be biased and call a 4, just for how often I felt touched by this album.

It really does just come down to how well their vocals blend together, and my bias towards this sort of general sound. I might have this sort of bias for a lot of the country albums that come up, but I’ll live with that. If nothing else, this album is great for easy listening, and to hear three great female vocalists. For my tastes, it just hit right, and sometimes, that’s all you can ask music to do.

I am in a sort of stunned silence.

I know Nirvana’s big hits, but I don’t think those big hits really represent the true spirit of the band. Smells Like Teen Spirit is obviously nowhere to be found on this album, and it doesn’t feel missed at all. Kurt Cobain and the rest of Nirvana wanted to just be themselves, jam out, and do some of their favorites, big hits be damned. The fact that half of this record is covers is a testament to how little they cared about the commercialism of it all.

There were times where I kinda just zoned out to let the music carry me, but I think that’s the underlying point of Nirvana as a band. It’s very easy to understand their biggest hits, which is where I clearly was (and still am, really), but to understand Nirvana, and to more aptly explore Kurt Cobain, I feel like this album just gives a lot of insight into why Nirvana has endured this long after his passing. I’m sure there’s even more answers on their studio records, but there’s just something about that last song, and the way everyone literally held onto his every breath that just explains why he was so captivating to so many people without a single word.

I really don’t think there’s a flaw in this album – I’m going to give it a 5, but something tells me that I deeply need to go back to the original studio versions of each song in here that I didn’t know to really appreciate these more stripped-down versions even more.

This album could’ve been cut in half, or even into thirds, and I would’ve given it a lot of credit for being (does this sound familiar yet?) a completely competent album with a great runtime that explores a variety of styles and explores them all in short bursts, with some mediocre vocals, and I’d have given it a 3.

The completely needlessly long runtime and repetitive production that actually permeates this entire album single handedly ruins it. It’s not an egregiously terrible album, but it just drains on and on, and it gets so utterly boring by the end that you barely realize the final track is the final track. It’s a 2, but it’s an Apocalypse Dudes-style 2 where individually, I’m sure these would be great tracks in bursts, but as a whole album, it’s just a miserable experience to me.

I came into this album expecting ska, and to some degree, I did get it, but I kinda wish I came in with different expectations.

This is a highly diverse, really experimental album for 1980 that I think hits more often than not. As far as the production goes, even after a pretty slow start marked by pretty traditional instrumentation, once it starts to get into the experimental, a lot of what’s on this record feels pretty ahead of its era – the sort of soundscapes that diversify themselves throughout this album certainly became more mainstream by the late 90s and early 2000s, and in that sense, this album is way more of a trendsetter than I was expecting going in. For 1980, I’m sure this was a little polarizing, but for 2024, everything in here feels pretty typical, but it still feels kinda fresh and nice, and I’m super impressed by that.

It’s not a perfect album; there are some mixing things here and there, and a few tracks kinda just made me bored, but I think I’ve got to give this thing a 4 out of respect for being able to switch between so many genres and for usually just being really catchy.

That is absolutely pure jazz.

I could nitpick; a few tracks have the instruments going a little too hard sometimes for it to be a super relaxed jazz album, but that’s the type of nitpick that would get you punched in the face. It’s just a great album for easy listening – there are some points where I was maybe hoping for lyrics or a brass section moment, but nothing ever really felt empty. Absolutely a must-listen record, even if it’s only as background noise, because it will eventually suck you in, either with the bass, the piano, or the drums.

I don't think it's a 5 – it's not the type of album that I'd give a 5, but I’m gonna go with a 4. I'm giving it that just because it’s a REALLY timeless jazz record; there’s not a single missed note or beat here. Just a great listen.

Another solid 3 – there’s some good highs here, not many lows, but overall, I feel just… whelmed. A lot of these tracks feel like they’re missing one extra thing in them that would really fill out each song and make them feel more complete. It’s not a disappointing album per se, it’s just dripping with some unmet potential, I think.

It’s not a bad album, but it’s not one where I’d go back to too many tracks. I think it’s certainly worth a listen – there’s good stuff in here, namely the stretch of tracks 5 through 9, and I’m sure there’s some of the other tracks that would hit better to my ears if I listen even more, but... I think I’m just gonna stick to a 3.

It’s… realistically, just a 3. It’s a pretty atypical country album for this time period I think, with a little extra flair here and there, and nothing really stands out except for a few tracks… but personally, it’s an album I think I’ll keep in shuffle.

I have an incredible nostalgia for this type of soundscape – the country twang, the strong vocals, the fiddles and violins and strings mixed with crisp drums. The feeling this album gave me really, really did send me back to days of sitting in a car that still took old cassette tapes, with my dad popping them in during any car trips, and they always sounded like this. I haven’t forgotten that sound, but I haven’t actively been seeking it out. This album has made me want to revisit that sound; to find those old cassettes, to see what they were and to see if they hold up.

It’s just a really nice album for me, and I'm glad I listened to it.

This is possibly the most conflicted I’ve been on rating an album so far.

The political climate of 1972 for Brazil underscores a lot of this album, and there’s a passion throughout it that’s so easy to feel, but probably very hard to understand in 2024 without an innate knowledge of the subject that I just don’t have. Let me be clear: I’d be a moron to not acknowledge that this is a good album. It does not sound like it came from 1972 at all – there’s an exploration of so many genres here that it feels like the album had an incredible vision of what music was gonna be for at least the next 20 or 30 years, if not longer, and it’s all carried by two things: guitar playing that simply feels timeless, whether it’s acoustic, electric, or bass, and absolutely passionate vocals by Milton Nascimento & Lo Borges that you can feel even through the language barrier.

My confliction is not “is this good or bad” – it’s do I give this a 4 or 5? I feel like I can’t give it a 5 because of that language barrier, and how I don’t think I can fully enjoy the album because of that, but I’d also probably be a moron to not give it a 5 out of pure trust in how cathartic this album must have felt in 1972, and how well it’s aged into modern times; so many of the other 70s albums we’ve heard have occasionally had mixing issues or choices that clearly dated them.

If we were going by 10, it’d be an easy choice to just say 9/10 and get it over with, but for a 5 point scale, I think I have no choice but to round it up, just out of respect for nailing everything it tries to do.

I think this is a strong 3 for me – like, if we could go by decimals, you’re looking at a 3.5 that I can’t personally round up to a 4.

This album hits on a lot of my sensibilities for this era, but I feel like the vision she’s going for isn’t fully realized over the course of this album. You’ve got great soundscapes, and when they hit in tandem with the lyrics, they hit, and I’d say they hit more often than not. However, when they do feel disjointed, it kinda sticks out to me in a way that… doesn’t ruin the album experience, necessarily, but it’s harder to stay invested for me because I kind of have to focus one way or the other instead of working in harmony.

Those moments are what’s keeping me from rounding up to a 4, but this is a really nice sounding album, and I think there’s some high emotional points on it that would make me recommend it to some people I know.

…It’s just OK.

There’s really nothing that special here – I have a number of songs I sorta liked while listening, just because they hit on some of my musical sensibilities, but it’s a pretty forgettable album otherwise. There’s no standouts, there’s nothing here but a really stripped down style: two vocalists, a good drummer, and a sick guitarist. Instrumentals on this album are great, but the lyrics and the vocal performances just weren’t always clicking for me. It’s a mediocre 3; it kinda just feels like it’s a worse version of Murmur by R.E.M..

So, I’ve never listened to this in full with headphones in or anything like that – I had a small sense of what the album was like, or at least I thought I did.

If you focus solely on the instruments, you end up with such a funky, bassy record that takes all of Thundercat’s best production beats on To Pimp a Butterfly, and then expands them to fit his own sensibilities lyrically. If you take the time to focus on the lyrics, you end up with all the phases of what it’s like to be drunk: the brief jolts of happiness, the random thoughts that creep in, the deep seated feelings that something isn’t right and you’re just kinda running away from something, and then the overwhelming sadness that comes as that drunk feeling starts to wear off.

They meld together to make a really good soundscape, and ultimately, a really good album. I don’t think it’s perfect – I think some tracks go a little too short, I think some tracks didn’t quite click right with me on this first full listen, and there are some instrumentals where I went “I wish this was used for something with a little more depth,” but those are all nitpicks. The whole album is a great, great listen, and I’d recommend it to anyone.

Strong, strong 4. Probably a 5 if you’re high.

I mean… man. Slow start, big finish, but what an album.

I’ve always been an MJ guy and not a Prince guy, which is to say I’ve always treated Michael’s albums with incredible reverence, and only given the same reverence to Prince’s big singles – Little Red Corvette, 1999, Kiss, When Doves Cry, Purple Rain, and so on. This album has made me realize I am a moron for not approaching Prince’s albums in the same way. There’s just an energy to this whole thing that’s a bit understated – I thought tracks 2 & 3 were a little disjointed, and I wasn’t vibing with them, but it fucking kicked into high gear for me with Track 6 and then never looked back.

Lyrically, sometimes I wish Prince were a little less horny, but I get the feeling that would be the most futile cause in all of music. Instrumentally, I just hear the quintessential sound of the 1980s all wrapped up into one album; your acoustics, your electronics, your pre-programmed drums, your live drums, your horn sections, your deep voices, and your falsettos.

In every sense of the word, it’s a 5 – realistically, for my tastes, it’s probably like a 4.75 (few tracks go a little long, slight repetition, be less horny), but I’d be a criminal to not round it up. Just a really, really good listen. High recommendation.

For a debut album, that’s a fucking great album.

A lot of my compliments for IV apply here too – the guitar work, the vocal work, the drum work all come together to make a really, really good soundscape. It’s obviously a lot more refined and perfected by IV, but this album is no slouch of its own, and I think some of its more high energy tracks just feel better to my ears than IV’s songs at certain points. For Stand!, I mentioned how the guitar work stood out to me, but that’s taken to an even higher level on this record for me. As a complete album, I do think there are some songs here that are just a little underwhelming, or a little unfitting, but they don’t take away from my enjoyment of this album whatsoever.

It’s not a 5 for me, at least not on this first listen, but it’s absolutely like a 4 at least, and a highly recommended listen.

Man, that’s a really good album. For 1969, I think it completely hits on all of its goals; talk about the social issues of the time, show off some fantastic musical skills, and just make an album you can vibe out to regardless of who you are.

I’m really more impressed by the guitar work on this album than anything else – I’m not one to focus too heavily on individual instruments, since I think a full soundscape should usually be driven by everything working in harmony, but this album manages to achieve a great harmony between its vocals, the basslines, the drums, and all the other instruments that they throw in throughout, while letting the guitar just absolutely shine throughout.

I ripped heavily into Third for not being able to keep its listener engaged, but I think it’s because it was just experimenting too hard for my tastes. On this album, I think Sex Machine is 14 minutes of just an incredibly satisfying jam session (save for that kinda grating guitar about 9 minutes in) that does exactly what I wish Third had done: keep it simple while just finding a fun way to integrate these rock instruments with a jazzy feel.

That instrumental philosophy rings true throughout every aspect of this album, and I think my only complaint here is hoping for a little more lyrical density, but that’s kind of a nitpick. It’s a really fun album, and I think it’s a high 4 that could easily round up to a 5 on any subsequent listens.

Probably didn't need Track 2, though.