Rated 6/10
The conscious hip hop lyrics flew past me. And that 12 minute outro wasn't too bad, it reminds me of RAYE crediting those who helped make her album. If we took all that out, this album sits perfectly within its time as one of many Kanye-adjacent hip hop albums.
Rated 6/10
Rolling Stones vibes, recreating the lost magic of the 50s and early 60s. Old time rock n' roll doesn't really do much for me to be honest.
Rated 8/10
Quite groovy jazz rock, surprised by its transition of improvisation then structured rhythms. The album cover doesn't represent sound fully; like you'd think it's giving Ethel Cain, especially with that classical opener. But it's danceable and just quite rhythmic in general (3.5-4).
Rated 6/10
Not as punk as I thought. It's retro-influenced and quite short. "Alison" feels the least "Costello-y" from what I hear about him as this punk figure.
Rated 6/10
This is like the soundtrack to The Graduate. It's just as sparse and follows a template to Songs From A Room with some melodies like "So Long, Marianne". Though they follow a repetitive pattern in line with verse-chorus-verse format.
Rated 6/10
Sounds like Chic and almost every other disco record but with a lot more smooth jams.
Rated 6/10
The year 1984 must have been so special cause this record is so anthemic. I love some good guitar riffs and there are some catchy ones here (that’s why we all know Jump, it carries so hard). I wish there were more synths here though, as that felt the most 1984-coded to me. What’s not is Hot For Teacher. It sounds so corny and I can’t out of good faith bump it to a 4 (3.5).
Rated 8/10
"Steve McQueen" makes me nostalgic for simpler times with its clean, sophisticated 80s production. It takes a few listens for it to "sprout" on you. Didn't quite get it on first listen, but when my playlist put it on shuffle a few times I got the vibe of going back home at night on the train.
What's with 2000s hip-hop albums being so bloated and long? I ain't tryna hear all that. It's doing too much sonically that it feels scrambled. Like there's a "gangsta" song put in between all the other tracks about love or flexing as the "Soul Machine". It's like he's trying to be both a crooner and a hardcore rapper, most evident in his vocals and cadence.
Rated 6/10
Unsure how this is "art rock" because this reminds me more of their alt-country-rock sound. "Heavy Metal Drummer" does sound different.
This is an evening/late-night album as it carries an introspective mood. Its slow pace though makes for a boring but tolerable listen. I much prefer "Being There" as at least it had more spunk and energy. Maybe I'm just not in the mood for something introspective, I do too much of that already (2.5-3).
Rated 6/10
To be continued...
The only good part of that opening track is just how memed it is. And then after I just got reminded of how long prog rock songs can be. The rest of the album cycles through acoustic and hard rock with some experimental/soothing interludes.
Like most albums recently, nothing really stood out to me. It was a nice, inoffensive listen. Maybe since I've been getting into electronic/hyperpop more that makes "Fragile" more dated than it sounds now.
Rated 6/10
Drum machine-heavy funk on the first CD side and more rock on the second. Some tracks on this record seem to have anticipated the later 90s R&B sound. It sounds so varied yet so cohesive too; Prince knew how to stick to a vibe while still keeping it fresh. And this was what made the length of this double album not as bad (3.5).
Rated 6/10
🫣
For this kind of album cover, it sounds too consistent and unsexy.
wait I thought I had reviewed this album already?
Came to this record imagining Dylan's voice but it's like a slower CCR
Rated 6/10
Roykslopp 😭
Jk this is just if weather channel music was made for the club (not derogatory).
giving 60s, spaghetti western vibes. sounds like what Arctic Monkeys would do later with AM but more intense in its baroque sound. nothing really stood out to me for this album, just the fact that baroque pop really is pop/rock + orchestral strings.
The first word I could think of for this album is "Radiohead". Maybe my head remembered some review comparing it to PJ's contemporary. And as I was writing that I just got to "This Mess We're In" and Thom is featured. Makes sense now.
In addition to that, the guitar work feels very late 90s/early 2000s alt-rock. Compared to "Dry", the last album I listened from PJ, it feels more introspective and "transient". Not sure how to put it into the words but the album cover evokes that evening/midnight feeling of walking around NYC and seeing people and lights coalesce into one.
As always, I'm more of a sucker for the more simple tunes like "This Is Love" and "This Mess We're In". The second half stood out to me as sounding more different than the first half, which to me were just variations of the same rock sound (3-3.5).
Don't know why Spotify recommends Talking Heads on my playlists. They're just too quirky to be on my regular rotation. They just have this "look how artsy I am" vibe I can't really shake off.
In terms of this album, this is pretty funky. Has the instrumental post-punk/new wave sections but with the added groove.
Rated 4/10
he has the most renaissance fair-sounding voice I've heard. I wrote down when I first listened to it last year, "trippy, medieval LARP vibes" before LARP became slang for poser. Gave me an earache.
Rated 6/10
Evokes a 50s-early 60s country vibe. Compared to the last country album, this has more soft rock instruments (steel guitars, drums). Seems to be have a lot of ballads and line dance songs. Personally found it formulaic. Put this on any country playlist and I couldn't tell you whose who. Guess I love my country with a fuller sound and with a rockier influence.
