Reviews by jaileer5

So, I wasn't sure about this album on my first listen. I thought it was a little underwhelming, and frankly disappointing. But my listen was a bit disjointed, and split over two days, so I decided to listen to it a second time, and the second time through was *much* better! One thing I was able to do was skip the stupid skits, so that instantly raised my regard for the album.

I still think it's a tough album to score, though. I like British rap, I think it's fun. That said, I kind of feel like this album tries really hard to be regular old American rap. Not a bad thing, per se, but I've heard dozens of artists do that better. I think it's a really catchy album and I like it. I'd probably give it a 3.5 if I could. I'm going to bump it to 4 stars because rap is generally pretty hated on this project, so I'm sure it'll be under-heralded.

As an aside, I just learned that this album beat Radiohead's A Moon Shaped Pool for the 2016 Mercury Award. That's so absurd that it made me feel a bit angry towards this album...until I learned that Radiohead has been nominated for five Mercury Awards and have NEVER won:

1997: OK Computer lost to Roni Size - Represent. A good album, but not even on the same PLANET as OK Computer.
2001: Amnesiac lost to PJ Harvey - Stories. This is a BANANAS decision. There are four nominated albums that year better than Stories.
2003: Hail to the Thief lost to Dizzee Rascal - Boy in da Corner. Get fucked.
2008: In Rainbows lost to Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid. I do not agree with this decision, but I will say that this album is genius and criminally underrated.
2016: A Moon Shaped Pool lost to Skepta - Konnichiwa. A travesty, but probably the second best of the albums to incorrectly win against Radiohead.

So I'm not mad at this album anymore, but it's obvious that the Mercury Awards are a joke.

When this popped up, I audibly said, “fuck yes!” I’ve just had a slog of 70s rock, 80s pop, and weird Girl From Ipanema-type albums, so this was incredibly refreshing.

This is an awesome album, but it’s a little confusing that this is the album selected, when it’s probably the third or fourth best Slipknot album. Iowa is, in my opinion, their magnum opus, and their self-titled is another 5 star.

All that said, there are some killer, all-time greats on this album. Psychosocial is as good as any song they’ve ever released, Snuff is a beautiful ballad that one would never expect from a band of Slipknot’s reputation, and songs like Gematria and Vendetta show that they’ve still got the heavy chops that have made them icons. I think there were a couple meandering songs that kept this from being a 5 star, but it’s definitely good enough to be in your metal album rotation.

I don't know, man. What do you say about Beck? I don't really know how to explain his music, I don't really know *why* it's good, I just know it's damn good. It's weird, the lyrics don't make any damned sense, he's constantly got little snippets of sounds that don't sound like they should work, but they're actually perfect, and the songs are all so catchy.

So this is a Beck album, and although I can't explain why it's awesome, I can simply tell you - it's pretty awesome.

Don’t love it. I think this is the third or fourth of this type of album and it’s unnecessary.

Not my cup of tea, but I respect the forefathers.

Sometimes, I start listening to an album and I’m pretty unimpressed for the first couple of songs, and then something, usually a lyric, will catch me, and I’ll start listening with a different mindset, like a switch has been flipped. This album is one of those.

For the first few songs, I was bored. It sounded too much like Kanye, I didn’t think the production was all that interesting, and it was just background noise. And then we got to I Gotcha, and the wordplay, the flow, the peppy beat - it just grabbed me. The album just got better from there.

This is some of the best storytelling you’re going to get in a rap album of this era. This project needs more modern hip hop, and this is an absolutely worthy inclusion.

Records like this are why Gen X were known as the “slacker” generation.

Surprisingly excellent. I was very much not thrilled when this popped up. I don't tend to like 70s rock very much, and the song American Pie is one of the most overrated songs in music history. That said, once I got past that, it turns out this guy is a terrific songwriter! The Grave is one of the most haunting songs I've ever heard, Empty Chairs perfectly encapsulates the incredulity and remorse of a breakup, and "Everybody loves me, baby, what's the matter with you?" is in the running for the funniest lyric of all time, even though it's hidden in what I'm pretty sure is a strong anti-war, anti-imperialism protest song.

Excellent album, and one I'm certainly glad I was turned on to by this project.

This was disappointing. I remember a few of the songs, but they really don’t hold up very well. It’s probably a 2.5, but it was kind of crap. There’s nothing special about this album, and I honestly cannot fathom why it was chosen.

I don't know what the fuck I just listened to, but I like it.

Surprisingly excellent. I don't know much about Genesis other than Phil Collins, and he's more of a pop guy to me, so when I would read things about Genesis being a prog band I was always so confused, because the few songs I heard by them didn't sound prog to me at all.

This album is definitely prog.

I liked it quite a bit. I just read the blurb and apparently it's kind of controversial amongst Genesis fans, but I don't have time for all that nonsense. I listened to it, I enjoyed it a lot, and so I'm giving it 4 stars.

Pretty good for an old punk record. That’s a low bar, though.

It's good. It sounds like early cure, so it's definitely not something Im going to listen to a lot, but I quite like The Cure.

Unfortunately, there aren't half stars in this stupid thing, so I have to figure out whether to rank it 3 stars, the same as my last two albums by Kate Bush and Sheryl Crow, or bump it up to 4 stars, which is *supposed* to be albums I like quite a lot. So, it deserves a 3.5, but I'm giving it an extra half star because it's not Kate Bush or Sheryl Crow.

The worst part about this album is that I just found out that Clipse released their first album in 15 years, and Travis Scott also released a new album this week. I'd much rather be listening to those albums, so I'm kind of listening to this like a kid eats his broccoli.

Overall, it's pretty OK. It's weird, not your typical 80s pop sound, so that's endearing. I'd probably give it a 2.5 if I could.

My god it's tedious. So, so tedious. I feel like I've heard this album dozens of times already. If there's a template of 60s/70s rock, this follows it perfectly. I wouldn't say it's a *bad* album, but it's not good, and it's exhausting in its sameness.

2.5 stars, but I'm docking it half a star because my mood noticeably improved when I started listening to something else.

A whole lot of nothing. Why is she so famous? It was fine, I guess, nothing offensively bad, but I don’t hear anything that would suggest it’s genre-defining, or worthy of inclusion on any Best Of list. All I Wanna Do is pretty catchy, but is one catchy pop song enough to warrant a spot on this list? I submit that it’s not.

The first thing I do when I see that an album is two hours long, or has more than one disc, is tho check Wikipedia to see if I've inadvertently gotten some stupid reissue version and, hallelujah, that was the case with this album. Because while I really liked it, I'm not going to listen to two hours of it.

So this review is based on the first 9 songs, because that was the original release - and the first 9 songs were pretty damned good. It's kind of dreamy, shoegazey, and I would have never guessed it was released in the 80s. I can hear the shades of music to come, which lets me know it was probably super influential to bands like Mogwai, Godspeed You, and the like. It's a 3.5, but I'll give it a half star because it surprised me

It's OK. I've always liked Michael Franti...but I've also always thought he was a bit tedious. I listened to Spearhead a bit when I was young, but although this predates that, the Michael Franti I know is all here. He's a good storyteller, if a little heavy-handed. If you want a history lesson, or if you want to be outraged at the state of the country, this is the album for you.

Honestly, it's staggeringly sad that this album could have been written today. INS Greencard A-19 191 500 is the most timely 30-year old song I could imagine.

Overall it's a decent album that's probably a little longer than it should be. I like it, but he has a unique voice that gets to be a bit same-y after awhile.

Let's get this out of the way - the girl can SING. The problem is that they are DESPERATE to let you know. Every second of every song has her doing slides and scales and going up and down the register and it all feels so over the top and forced. There's a distinct attempt at a hip hop flavor that comes across as desperate mores than legitimate, and the whole thing is overproduced and cringey. She name checks all these great singers of old while tacitly placing herself at the same level - and she isn't. And the final song on disc one is legitimately the cringiest thing I've ever heard. I was so embarrassed for her that I couldn't finish the song.

I guess the second disc is much better than the first. The problem with that is twofold: 1.) I was already very annoyed and over it because disc one was awful and 2.) I don't need two fucking discs of Christina Aguilera.

This is a weird album. At first I thought it was awful, but once your ears adjust and you get used to it, it actually becomes sort of pleasant. I wouldn’t ever seek it out, but I wouldn’t be mad if it came on. I could never recommend this album to anyone as I don’t really think it’s very good…but it’s also not that bad. 2.5 stars.