Reviews by jaileer5

Some songs are very trip hop-ish, and I like the mixture of sounds - arabic, Indian, rock, Spanish guitar. musically, it's a very interesting listen because of the melding of all these disparate sounds. the vocals, however, leave a lot to be desired. It mostly sounds more like spoken word than singing.

But on certain songs, Like Soledad, where there is a guest vocalist, and it's pretty magnificent. Overall, I think this is a solid album that I enjoyed more often than not. I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more when it was new, but it's definitely not without its charms. 3 stars.

This was a huge disappointment, sadly. I adore the song Dear God, and, having never listened to this entire album before, was expecting more of the same. I am gutted to announce that the rest of the album was nothing like Dear God, which was the last song.

Now, just because I didn't really love the album doesn't mean that I can't hear how influential and creative it is. I'd love to give this a 2.5, but I'm going to give it a 2 because I just don't ever want to hear it again. I feel bad about it, but there's really only one good song on the album.

It's an interesting album and one that is on this list for obvious reasons. One of the most influential and important rap albums of all time, and the first to really penetrate the main stream American conscious.

It's a really interesting listen because there's a lot of rock influence in the songs - which I presume is the Rick Rubin influence but I'm too lazy to look up whether he produced this one. It's also interesting to hear the extent that the DJs were, at that time, the stars of the show. The rappers were kind of just there to showcase the DJ, who was the man the audience came to see. How far we've come.

Ultimately, one of the greatest things about rap is that it is a perfect little time capsule of the era it's created in. Although that can lead to a healthy dose of nostalgia and admiration, it also means that rapp from certain eras can end up sounding cringey, corny, or just plain anachronistic. I respect the hell out of this album, but I don't think I can say I like it.

I've always said I don't like 80s music, but I've had an interesting, and frankly, shocking, run of 80s albums lately that show me that it's not 80s *music* I don't like, it's 80s *pop* music I don't like. Well, this album was released in 2018 but sounds like it was released in 1981. It's bubblegum poppy, complete with a heavy reliance on synth.

Actually, the more I listened to it, it's still obviously *heavily* influenced by 80s pop, it is kind of an updated sound that I actually didn't hate. Yet another time I wish for half stars, but since I don't have them, and I'd listen to this album 10 times before I subjected myself to Iron Butterfly which I gave a 2, this gets a 3.

Another surprising entry, I liked it a lot but I'm not sure why I *needed* to listen to it. Just because it's a female fronted punk band? Either way, It was a fun listen, so I'm not mad.

Frankly, I am blown away at how good this album is. When I saw it pop up, and I saw the year was 1984, a feeling of dread washed over me but I need not have worried. This album is lush, and layered, with dreamy, ethereal vocals. While I do think the vocals are a bit shrill for my tastes, it is obvious that this album was the inspiration for the Trip Hop era, and acts like Bjork, and Massive Attack.

This is a solid 4 star album, and undeniably an album that is worth listening to before you die.

This is surprisingly great. Even more so when you realize it was released in 1980.The first several songs I was thinking this was definitely something that I could put on rotation, but I think it slows a bit at the end. It ultimately doesn't attain the upper reaches of a 5 star rating, but it's very good, very influential, and it is one of the increasingly rare albums that I can completely understand why it was chosen for this project.

I only know this band through the title track, which I've heard several times, but not for a long time. But I thought this was a really hard rocking band but it turns out - not so much.

Song 1: pretty dance-hippie with plenty of 60s rock organ. It's really more of a pop song than a rock song. It's not at all what I expected when I hit play.

Song 2: More pop! If you told me this was the title song to a Brady Bunch type of TV show I'd believe you with no hesitation.

Song 3: I have been gravely mislead. Was this band big with the teeny bopper American Bandstand crowd? This is just shitty hippie pop music.

Song 4: OK, it's still a bit light in the ass, but I can at least hear some rock stylings here. It's like they're reaching for something and they haven't quite gotten there.

Song 5: Last song before the main event and now we're talking! The first 30 seconds actually sounds like Rock and Roll! Then the singing starts and I've been let down, again. Still, this is the rocking-est song so far. As an aside, I know it was a different time, but the mix is goddamned awful. It's so tinny and thin, there's almost no bass, and the kick drum sounds like a little puff of air. The guitar has its moments, but the real star of this album is the organ. They really made sure it was predominately front and center.

OK, here we go: Song 6, the title track, the money maker. I've never heard the 17 minute album version, so is this song enough to save the album?

No. It is not.

Look, it's a decent song, but being 17 minutes certainly doesn't help it, especially when what seems like 10 of those minutes id the most rudimentary drum solo I have literally ever heard.

This album sold more than 30 million records and was, in fact, the bestselling Atlantic Records album until Led Zeppelin IV blew it out of the water. Still, 30 million records is a metric fuckton of records sold, and it goes to show that in the old days, if you had one banger you could make a killing selling records, because people had no choice but to buy the whole thing.

I appreciate that this album had the decency to only be 36 minutes long, but not as much as I appreciate the fact that I never have to listen to it again.

God, I just loathe country music, with extra spicy antipathy towards this honky tonk bullshit. I don't know if Ray Price was racist, but I presume he was because country is music made for racists by racists.

This is pretty cool. It's not something I'm going to listen to all the time, but it's pretty damn good, if not overlong. The songs are interesting compositionally, and though I do think it starts to drag a bit, I found myself engaged throughout. I think it's strongest when it leans into the traditional sounds, and less effective when it strays into a poppy, almost merengue style. Three well deserved stars, I'd give this 3.5 if I could, but it just doesn't quite meet the standards of 4 stars.

Another amazing album. Rage had a pretty big influence on my late teens and twenties, really opening my mind to a lot of injustices in an era that didn’t have the 24-hour news cycle and constant flood of information that we have now. It’s a real shame we didn’t get another album or two out of them before Zack shut up shop, but we have this masterpiece to remember them by.

It’s about the perfect album. There isn’t a weak song here. Just lovely.

It’s actually quite good. Not MIA good, but still pretty good. I’ve never heard of this person before, but apparently this album won the Mercury award. I know that’s supposed to be an achievement, but knowing Radiohead has never won a Mercury award means I cannot take them serious and therefore disregard that accolade entirely. Anyway, 3.5.

I'm not a huge fan of live albums. It's like, take the songs you love, and make them worse, then add a bunch of crowd noise. This one is good to very good. It gets a little screechy in parts, but you can tell these guys were *rocking* for the 70s.

For the life of me I cannot fathom why this is on the list of albums to hear before you die. Like I said, it's good, but what elevates it over literally any Tool album, since there are apparently none on this list. I won't ding the album for that bullshit, but it's bullshit.

I quite liked it, actually. It was weird, and I didn't know this was Johnny Rotten's band. It's nothing at all like The Sex Pistols.

This is a tough one to rate, because I'm not sure I liked it 4 stars worth, but I like it better than most of the stuff I've given a 3.

This is an amazing album. Although I consider Andre 3000 as one of the greatest rappers of all time - he doesn't really rap on this album, choosing, instead, to lean into singing. I'm not going to say he's a great singer, but somehow he makes the songs work on his half of this double album.

The Big Boi side is exactly what you'd expect from Big Boi, but done as well as you'd hope. While I think both sides are excellent in their own way, they're completely different vibes, and I'd probably want to listen to them separately, depending on my mood.

And therein lies the problem. I'm not sure I'll ever really be in the mood to listen to Big Boi without Andre 3000, and although I like The Love Below, and I'm impressed by it's creativity, it's deployability for me is fairly low - much lower than other albums in their catalog.

All that said, I'm giving this album a 5. Is it as good as Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik? No. it as good as Atliens? Absolutely not. Is it a banger, a classic of the genre? You're goddamned right. So it should probably be a 4.5, but even when genius slips, the output is still incredible.

It's fine. I don't know.

It's pretty good for what it is. I'd give it 3.5 if I could. It sounds a bit dated, for sure.

It's OK. There are a few songs that sound kind of like a peppier The Cure, but the guys voice gets a little grating after awhile.

Knowledge of Beauty is awful, and I think that's dragging down my overall opinion of the album. Also, I'm a little salty that I'm listening to Dexy's Midnight Runners and There's no Come On Eileen. It's an outrage.

Overall, I din't hate it, but I'm glad it's over.

Sounds like the soundtrack to a Vietnam War movie.