Reviews by jaileer5

I don't really have much to say about this. it was...fine? in a historical way? I don't know.

Why the hell have I slept on this for 30 years?! This album is outstanding. it really is like nothing else. This is the second PJ Harvey album I got and honestly, the first one was pretty much what I thought a PJ Harvey album would sound like, albeit with a couple surprisingly good songs. THIS one, however, is a goddamned juggernaut from start to finish. Is it a 5 star album? Probably not, it's a 4.5 in a world that's just, and fair. But it's an absolute rocking good time, and I would absolutely listen to it again for fun. Like Skunk Anansie, I think this gets an extra half star for the surprise factor - and the fact that there really isn't a weak song on the album.

Starts off like a bat out of hell - that opening bit of back in the saddle is as iconic an opening of any song - much less track - that you're ever going to hear. I think it slowed down a bit at the end, and probably deserves 3.5 stars. but I gave the goddamned Beatles 3 stars yesterday and that doesn't hold a candle to this album, so it gets bumped half a star by virtue of not being the Beatles.

I really actually dug the first half, and It Won't Be Long is a legit banger. But then it gets really kind of soppy, poppy 50s sock hop sounding and that sucks. I feel like I've heard a lot of the songs on the second half of the album, and I'm not sure if I've heard covers of these songs, or if this album is half a cover album - and I don't care enough to look it up.

This isn't exactly high praise, but I'm pretty sure this is the best Beatles album. I liked it more than Revolver and Sgt. Pepper's, which I also gave 3 stars, but this one is better. Not good, mind you, but better.

This sounds like Kenny G and Michael Bolton had a baby.

That is not a complement.

Another awesome old school hip hop album. This is 3.5 stars.

This is terrible. This might be the absolute peak of the hipster shit. Banjos and beards and tight rolled jeans, and high pitched country-adjacent whining.

I did not like it.

You know, I'm disappointed in this. I had Larks' Tongues In Aspic a few weeks ago, and everything I read was that it was a difficult album for "new fans" but I loved it. So I was really quite excited when this album popped up, as this is supposed to be their magnum opus. It's...fine? It's a lot slower than I thought, and it doesn't sound as unique as I thought it would be. It sounds more like a bridge between hippie 60s rock and what they would ultimately become. That's fine, and I *do* think that a bridge album of sorts justifies a spot on this list, but it just didn't connect with me the way I had hoped it would.

I mean, whatever.

This album is WILD. I have no idea what it is, or what it's trying to be, or why I need to listen to it before I die, but it is definitely an experience. I like and respect experimental music, but sometimes it's kind of shit. Here's the thing: I never want to listen to it again. That's usually my standard of a 2 star review, but this one - absolute insanity aside - was actually a pretty decent listen. Halfway through the first song, I'm thinking, what the hell am I listening to? Then the second song starts playing, and he starts singing, "ain't nothing like a gang bang to blow away the blues," and I had to stop what I was doing to read the lyrics because, surely, "gang bang" must have meant something different in the 70s, no?

Yeah, no. He's singing about a 27-guy gang bang. What the actual fuck, man? Boomers were listening to this shit, then yelling at us because our music had cuss words?

There's a song called Giddy Up a Ding Dong.

"I swear on the wet head of my first case of gonorrhoea" is a real lyric. What the fuck, man.

I feel like the pitch meeting went something like this:

“Imagine Beastie Boys, but we’ll only have one vocalist.”

“Will he have a distinct, interesting voice, like Ad Rock?”

“Nah, we’ll get someone to just mumble through everything - think a more boring Everlast.”

“Oh, um, OK. Shall we call Rick Rubin?”

“Nah, we’ll just let them produce themselves.”

“Right. Ok. So this is for the hip hop community?”

“Nah, this is for suburban white kids and Europeans who want hip hop-ish music but without...you know.”

Ugh. I need half stars. This is an easy 3.5. Really a pretty damn good album. great? No. but I like the messiness and the noisiness of it.

I have to go back now and edit yesterday's Beatles album because this album is miles better than that because the Beatles suck ass.

I don't get the Beatles. It's just so simple, and their songs aren't that catchy. This record was better than some of the other albums this stupid project has forced me to hear, but I promise you that no one needs to listen to 7 albums of this boring shit before they die.

I don't really like jazz, which is to say I don't really *get* jazz. It's all kind of flighty and truly and a bit hard to listen to. But not this one. This one is pretty goddamned good.

I wasn't expecting this. Just an all-out onslaught of awesome from the first note. I don't know if Van Halen is supposed to fit in with 70s rockers, or if they're the forefathers of 80s butt rock, but this album is banger after banger after banger. You're on song 7 before you can come up for air. I find myself looking for reasons not to give this 5 stars because I'm trying to keep 5 stars relatively rare. But I don't like 70s rock for the most part, and I'd listen to this goddamned thing again for *fun*.

Literally no clue what's going on here, but it's a vibe.

Slipknot is criminally underrated for the skill and musicality of their music. It's not your standard "scream" music, as they play with time signatures, soundscapes, vocal methods and subvert metal expectations by throwing in a DJ and multiple percussionists.

I do think there are a couple clangers at the end, but it's hard not to give this 5 stars because the first 2/3 of the album is essentially perfection. 4.5 stars. It gets the benefit of the additional half star because of all the Taylor Swift pop stans and geriatrics who think Beatles are the pinnacle of "rock" music that will instantly give this 1 star because it's too loud and aggressive and scary.

started out pretty well, but honestly started getting a little tedious. It's pleasant enough, but it's very beige and same-y. 2.5 stars.

Pretty damned decent for an 80s album. Not too synth, not too poppy -- I'd say it has aged pretty well.