Reviews by heavymetal

Were these guys ever influential, relevant, or important enough to even warrant 1 entry in a list of 1001 albums to hear before you die? I mean they got tons of radio play, the singles were unavoidable for a year or two after they were released, but they always just felt like a derivative, general rock band. A bit like a bluesy U2 or a watered down and poppier White Stripes. They're not a bad band, they just don't really bring anything special to the table.

I had a pretty healthy obsession with Jack White for a long time, but I kind of skipped over this album, likely because it didn’t have the same guitar riff focus of previous albums. Listening to it now and I’m surprised at how weird and experimental some of these tracks are, especially those featuring the marimba.

I said in my review of their debut album that it reminds me of partying with the punk kids in high school. I’ve never done DMT, but I’m pretty sure this album is what doing DMT with the punk kids in high school would have been like.

Seriously, this feels like such a weird follow up to their debut album. While I haven’t returned to their debut since it was generated a while ago, I remember it being a fun and upbeat ska record. This album on the other hand immediately goes off the rails into some pretty strange territory and almost feels like a nightmare version of their debut. It’s still ska, but with a lot of other influences thrown in and the themes seem much darker.

Growing up I despised music from the 80s and I feel like Duran Duran being a quintessential 80s synth pop band made them a target for my derision, but I’ve come to find that I was mostly wrong; a lot of the 80s music I disliked is actually pretty decent and this is no exception. That said, I don’t love it and I’m not going to proclaim to be a Duran Duran fan now, but it’s not that bad either.

I absolutely love this album. It takes a lot of Bowie’s influence and production from the Idiot and injects some of Iggy’s punk attitude back into it and it feels way ahead of its time. It feels post-punk before punk really even fully took off.

I liked this a lot more than the last Supergrass album that was generated. There's a frenetic energy and a bit of a punk feel to some of these songs. This album does seem similarly frontloaded though; I feel like it loses some steam in the second half

I'd heard Sultans of Swing many, many times, but I've never bothered to listen to any other Dire Straits. Turns out the rest of the album is just as good as Sultans of Swing!

Honestly, I was a bit hesitant going into this one because I am incredibly burnt out on blues guitar based music, but Mark Knopfler has such a smooth and unique way of playing the guitar; it just works so well on all of these tracks and it doesn't feel like the same tired blues licks you hear all the time.

I knew this time would come and I fully understand why this album would be on the list, but I just don't like it. I don't care how many times people tell me that I need to give it another chance because it's actually a phenomenal psychedelic album. Trust me, I've tried in the past and I tried again today. I still just cannot stand hearing Time to Pretend, Electric Feel, or Kids. It's not that they're bad songs, I get why someone would like them, it's just that their success meant that these songs were absolutely unavoidable and I've heard them too many times.

Art is subjective, the ratings for this project are subjective, I don't like this and that's alright.

This is modern country with a pop twist or maybe modern pop with a country twist. It’s far better than what I expect from modern country, but it’s still not really my thing.

I don’t normally hate synth pop, but I couldn’t stand this and it took a lot of effort to get through the whole thing. Just felt like generic and boring dance music with generic and boring indie vocals layered on top.

Also as an aside with no real impact to my rating, but I work with radiation and seeing trefoils used in pop culture is a huge pet peeve.

I too am so bored with the USA

Deep Purple were an integral band in the evolution of heavy metal and hard rock and you can hear why on Machine Head. I absolutely loved this album when I was a teenager, but Deep Purple haven't quite stuck with me the same way Led Zeppelin did. While listening to Machine Head today, I can appreciate their impact, and I did enjoy the album, but I don't think I'm any more likely to want to revisit this album in the future.

I am not at all familiar with Paul Simon's solo work beyond having Hearts and Bones generated pretty early in this project. Hearts and Bones had a bit too much cheesy 80s production and sound to it as well as one of the worst songs I've ever heard in Cars are Cars.

However, his self-titled album I enjoyed quite a bit. It felt like a lot of Simon & Garfunkel stuff, but with a wider range of influences and he's experimenting with more genres. In particular, I really wasn't expecting the reggae bits.

Solid alternative album through and through. I’ve previously gone through PJ Harvey’s discography and really enjoy her music, but don’t return to it as much as I probably should.

I completely forgot about Thom Yorke featuring on this album. Their duet works really well and you can definitely feel his influence on a couple songs.

Amazing storytelling and songwriting. I enjoyed listening to it, but it’s just not really my thing.

Wow, this was a weird one. Avant-garde German cabaret with Marxist themes translated to English? Honestly, I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected. I kind of feel like Einsturzende Neubauten should have been the backing band on this one.

This was decent. Some psychedelic folk music. I enjoyed it, but I doubt I’m really going to revisit it any time.

Dissonant, noisy, experimental, and weird; Sonic Youth are yet another band that someone is either going to love or absolutely hate. Personally, I love them.

I went through a huge Sonic Youth phase in university, but I actually haven’t listened to them much since then. Listening to EVOL today and I am excited to dive back in and explore their music again.

Qu'est-ce que c'est? The Talking Heads debut finds them in their most raw and frenetic form. They continued to perfect this sound over the next few albums and, while I do prefer Fear in Music and Remain in Light, this is still an absolutely (psycho) killer album.

I've heard nothing but praise for this album since starting this project, and I do get it, it's a phenomenal album that has had a lasting impact on music, but it's long. It impressively manages to remain consistently high quality throughout the entire album and I don't think there's any real filler here, but I still don't think I'll ever be in the mood to sit down and listen to an hour and 45 minutes of Stevie Wonder again.