Reviews by heavymetal

Saccharine, danceable 70s disco music. Honestly, it’s not bad in the right situation, but it’s definitely not something I ever want to listen to unless I’m a few beers deep at a wedding reception.

It’s hard to rate this album the same way that I’ve rated the others on this list. The production is obviously immaculate and all of the artists’ performances were amazing, but it’s still Christmas music, which is basically only acceptable in small doses at a specific time of year.

I am happy to add it to the fairly short Christmas music rotation along with Christmas From the Heart by Bob Dylan, Songs for Christmas by Sufjan Stevens, and a few others, so I guess that’s something.

This album was half chill, fun vibes and half annoying sounds and vocals repeated ad nauseam, but there are a few moments that absolutely shine. Like the last track, They’re Hanging Me Tonight. If the whole album sounded like this last track, I’d rate it quite a bit higher.

I actually just went back through the track list again, and the tracks I had the most issues with were the ones featuring other “artist”. Seriously, cut out the 21 minutes of tracks with features and this actually would be a pretty tight and satisfying 36 minutes.

This is such a wild evolution of krautrock with some amazing use of samples and inspiration from 80s pop/disco and world music. I’ve only recently started exploring Can’s music, so it’s interesting to see the direction one of the founding members took. Honestly, the more I listen to this, the more I like it. It's just so weird in such a fun way.

There was a long period of time in high school where I called Pink Floyd my favourite band, but at this point it has been years since I gave this album a listen all the way through.

There are some top tier tracks on this album, but the Wall isn’t even close to my favourite Pink Floyd album. I’d much rather have Animals or Meddle on this list, but I do fully understand why it’s here. It’s basically the benchmark for concept albums, the production is immaculate, and Gilmour’s playing is phenomenal. That said, this album is incredibly long and somewhat bloated. Honestly, I think I much prefer experiencing this album through the film, which I should really watch that again sometime.

This feels like a modern psychedelic band that is in the same vein as MGMT and Tame Impala. Genuinely surprised I’ve never heard of them before, but I’ve never really been able to get into this type of music, so I guess it’s not that surprising. Overall, this was a good album, I enjoyed listening to it, but I doubt I’ll return to it much, if ever.

I went through a huge CSNY phase this past summer. It was mostly listening to Neil Young albums, Deja Vu, and CSN, but I also explored some of the other members solo works including this one. Overall, this doesn’t quite hit the same highs as CSNY or CSN and I don’t like it quite as much as I do Neil Young, but it’s still pretty damned good!

So this was not at all what I was expecting from Jeff Buckley. I don’t know why, but I genuinely thought he was just another blues rock guitarist. There are probably a number of factors in my confusion, including his dad, Tim Buckley's music career, but Grace is definitely not just some blues rock guitar album. It's actually a pretty solid 90s alt-rock album, which isn’t quite my preferred genre, but it's still good. Jeff Buckley also doesn’t quite sing in my preferred style of singing, but I'll readily admit he is absolutely a phenomenal singer. At times this reminds me of Chris Cornell/Soundgarden, others it reminds me of Thom Yorke/Radiohead. Interesting to see that his singing actually gave Thom Yorke confidence to sing in falsetto.

So work has been a bit shit lately; loads of stress and frustration. The other day I was headed into work dreading a presentation while simultaneously lamenting the fact that I didn’t even have time to give said presentation with all of the actual work I needed to do. Well, I’d been listening to a lot of early Nick Cave at the time, but somehow even the Birthday Party wasn’t able to cut through the mood I was in. I ended up putting on Halber Mensch by Einstruzende Neubauten and suddenly I felt a weight off my chest. I followed Halber Mensch with Kollaps and Kollaps with Tabula Rasa. I don’t know what it is about their music specifically, but it gave me the catharsis I needed to right myself and keep pressing on.

For a more light hearted aside, I absolutely love that someone thought it was a good idea to have Einstruzende Neubauten open for U2 during their Zoo TV Tour. They were apparently thrown off the tour after the first show when they threw an iron bar into a booing crowd. Personally, the only thing I find surprising here is that they were given the opportunity to open for U2 in the first place. Like, there aren’t many bands that would even have iron bars available to throw into a crowd in such a situation, but obviously Einstruzende Neubauten would.

Anyways, this is an album that I love. It’s also an album that I would not recommend to most people, but I will still argue it absolutely should be on a list of 1001 albums you should hear before you die. It's a bit of a paradox.

It’s been said that you need to listen to this album at least 7 times before you really start to get it. I think I’m on my 5th or 6th listen since I first heard it a couple years ago and I am definitely still peeling back layers. There’s something new to take away every time you hear it.

Do I enjoy listening to this album? Maybe not in the way that I enjoy other albums. This is a dense, difficult listen that demands your attention. The guitar playing is jagged, fractured, and frequently following a different rhythm than the drums and bass. The lyrics are almost completely nonsensical for large parts of the album and aren't always in sync with the music because Van Vliet recorded them while barely being able to hear the instrumental tracks from one of the studio windows. It is most assuredly “fast and bulbous”.

The story of the rehearsals and recording of the album are just as bizarre as the album itself. The band lived communally in a house in which they were restricted from leaving for months where Van Vliet “asserted complete artistic and emotional domination of his musicians”, including verbal abuse and physical violence that frequently reduced members to tears. They practiced for upwards of 14 hours a day and barely had any money or food to eat. The scene was described as cult-like and Manson-esque. I genuinely cannot fathom why the band stuck around for as long as they did, but I am happy they did as this album has gone on to influence countless artist that I love (Tom Waits, Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo, David Lynch to name a few) and is the gold standard of experimental and avant-garde music.

There are some seriously funky and jazzy R&B rhythms and grooves throughout this album, but I've been finding that I apparently just don't really like pop R&B vocalizations. She's got an interesting and fairly unique voice, which I'm usually drawn to someone whose singing is outside the norm, but I just find it starts to get on my nerves the further into this album I get. And, man does this album drag on.

My third Arcade Fire album from the generator. I think this is the album of theirs that I was most familiar with going into this project. As with the Suburbs and Funeral, this is perfectly enjoyable indie rock that I’m just not too fussed about. It’s weird because I really feel like I’m supposed to like Arcade Fire because I’m generally a fan of indie rock and I don’t dislike it, but I don’t exactly like it either.

I listened to this album first thing in the morning, but got interrupted before I had a chance to write a review. Now, 6 hours later, I don’t remember anything about it other than the fact that the rapping and vocals felt quite dated, but I still enjoyed it more than I was expecting.

An album I've heard about countless times, but never sat down to listen to and, man, was I ever missing out! Smooth jazz that seem to fluidly evolve over the course of a song, but keeps calling back to a central motif or theme. I do tend to appreciate more avant-garde jazz, so his experimentation with time signatures is right up my alley, and I absolutely love jazz drumming and Take Five is just an extraordinary jazz drum solo!

Listening to the first song, Blue Rondo a la Turk, I hear some passages and ideas that clearly influenced some of Frank Zappa's work. I had to go look up to see if the Dave Brubeck Quartet was ever cited as one of his influences and it seems that they likely were, which is pretty cool.

This is an album I'm very happy to have experienced as it instantly transported me to a different place that I've never been before. Very enjoyable at the start, it dragged a bit through the middle, but it picked itself back up near the end.

I think I'm going to have to make a couple mojitos or El Presidentes this weekend now as I have a sudden craving for some rum.

Also, to all the reviewers who left 1-star reviews because “this album isn’t in English”, what the hell are you doing here?

At times it feels like they're trying to emulate Beck, other times it feels like they're trying to emulate the Beastie Boys, and they have some underlying attempts at being gangster and hard. There were elements of this album I enjoyed like the solid production and the smooth and funky band/backing tracks, but not enough of them to ever want to hear this again.

Serious Vigo the Carpathian vibes from the headshot on the cover. As for the music, it was interesting and I'm happy to have heard it. Subtle psychedelic sounds mixed into samba / bossa nova. It's definitely not something I would have ever listened to outside of this list. I also can't really see myself ever returning to it other than the last two songs, which I actually found myself enjoying quite a bit.

For some reason, this album kind of reminds me of Broken Social Scene, but not really in a good way. Where I find Broken Social Scene lively, complex, and interesting, I find The xx is more dull, muted, and boring. I think the similarities I see/hear is just because it’s indie music from the same era; I could absolutely see The xx playing at the Toronto Island Concerts back in the day or the more recent Field Trip Festivals at Fort York.

Anyways, is there any Broken Social Scene on this list? There should be, and if there’s not, I’d trade this album for You Forget It In People.

I absolutely love the fusion of jazz and folk on this album. The vibraphone and drawn out, slow style of singing give this album a relaxed and chill atmosphere. It was really enjoyable to listen to and would be a great album to sit back and relax with. Unfortunately, the slower songs and some of the lyrics push this album a bit too far into sad and maudlin territory, which is probably the only thing holding it back from a higher rating from me.

I was a huge Doors fan in high school, but at some point I completely fell out of love with them. I don’t think I’ve listened to any of their music in nearly 20 years.

Listening to L.A. Woman now brings back so many memories, but somehow still feels kind of fresh and new to me because it’s been so long since I’ve heard any of these songs. Jim Morrison’s voice is amazing and the band are on fire. I really enjoyed listening to this one and I’m going to need to go do a deep dive through their albums again.

Also, to the reviewer who claims that both L.A. Woman and In Utero by Nirvana would never have been as popular if they weren’t the final releases of beloved musicians, what are you on about, man? We clearly hear music incredibly differently.