Reviews by jaileer5

This is a tough one to rate. because I like it quite a bit, but I also think it sounds a little same-y, you know? I don't think it sounds dated, per se, but it does have a very specific 90s sound to it like Keane, or Train. Kind of an Oasis wannabe with a bit less swagger and gobs more sensitivity.

I don't know. I like it. 3.5.

Yeah, I don’t love punk. It was fine as punk goes, I guess. I had to listen on YouTube because it’s not available on Apple Music, and that’s annoying because I hate commercials. Anyway, 2 stars is about right. I could be convinced to go to 2.5 is this thing had half stars.

It's a bit uneven. There are plenty of songs that are actually very good - 4 star material. Songs that sound fresh and unique and really stand up 30 years later.

Then there are songs that you can just feel the 80s dripping off of them, Like Soul Free. Overall, I'd say it's a solid 3 stars. I can recognize the quality without wanting to ever hear it again.

It's very much not my thing, but I can recognize its talent. That said, since it's very much not my thing, I suppose I can't know for sure if it's especially talented for its genre. It's Girl from Ipanema lounge music to me, though I acknowledge that's a lazy, uninformed comparison.

I'm going to give it a 3. I don't hate it, I just wouldn't listen to it on purpose, but if it was on in the background for some reason I don't think I'd object.

Don’t like it. Very nasally. I know he’s super famous but never really knew why - I still don’t. I didn’t realize his stuff was so old, I thought he was an 80s guy

I can't. I know it's "folk" or whatever, but it sounds an awful lot like country. Too much slide guitar and twangy shit. It's really annoying.

Shit

I just read part of the wikipedia page for this album, which I rarely do before writing a review. Because this album is very bad. It's just a weird mishmash of 60s psychedelia cliches that sounds very much like all the other albums of this genre I've listened to from this era.

Look, I'm not going to go in on it too hard. I don't think it's special AT ALL, and if this album wasn't created by the original Pink Floyd singer, I cannot imagine it would be on this list.

I’ve never liked Jay-Z, but this album finally shows me why he’s so highly rated. The production is uneven - a complaint that I’ve always had with Jay-Z’s songs is that I don’t really love the beats - but there are definitely some bangers. It’s also wild to hear Kanye when he had more talent than crazy.

I find it incredibly bland. It's OK, I guess, but it's just boring. To be completely fair and transparent, I'm in a very bad mood today and this just isn't what I want to be listening to, so I can't be arsed to listen to it again. It *probably* deserves a 2.5, and I want to give it 2 stars because everything sucks but I'll give it a 3 out of an abundance of fairness that it may not deserve.

I was disappointed when this popped up because I was sure I don't like Norah Jones. Do I know any Norah Jones songs? I do not. Not sure why I had the feeling that I dislike her. Maybe in my head I'm conflating her with Lana Del Rey, whom I also don't like and also can not name a single song.

Anyway, first impressions are mixed, she has an amazing voice. The songs are approaching a sound that I would like, but then there's this weird undercurrent of country music that just pops in. Like a slide guitar, or a certain twang that just makes me start to squirm. For example, Come With Me, which is apparently her big hit, starts out with sort of a standard, smoky, jazz lounge sound, but then there's a guitar solo about halfway through that sounds like it could be on a Conway Twitty album. Have I ever heard a Conrad Twitty song? I have not, but that's not the point. Focus. The point is that I don't *hate* this album, but it's too close to country music for me to like it. Three stars because I like her voice.

It's not bad, I guess. Very new wave, I guess. I don't know, I don't have much to say about it, to be honest. It wasn't great, it wasn't terrible. I've ranked MUCH better albums three stars, so that feels unfair, but it's nowhere near as bad as a 2 star review.

I suppose if you were around at this time and liked this band and/or album you're going to like it, but I doubt that this is going to produce many new fans.

I'm really very grateful that music and artists like this exist, as they really pushed the envelope and showed that what was possible, musically, could be so much more interesting and different than what came before.

I'm also very happy that the music created afterwards means we don't have to pretend that this is good anymore.

I’m going to click the button. I have doubts I’ll make it through this album.

Song 1: Hold on, this is pretty good! Not anything like what I thought it was going to b…

The rest of the songs: yeah…no.

This is a weird album. It’s not country, but the lead singer has a VERY pronounced southern accent, and it’s hard for me to get around that. It’s also too goddamned long. There are a couple really interesting songs but overall, I don’t like it at all.

Not good, Bob.

One thing I can guarantee you is that the global ranking for this album will be nowhere near as high as it should be. This album is a goddamned masterpiece. The inventiveness, the musicality, the virtuosity of the artists - God. Damned. Master. Piece.

I'm aware that this will be a bit, say, esoteric for the general listening public. But this album goes from strength to strength. It's never content to settle on one thing, one rhythm, one beat, one song structure. The entire album is filled with songs that are completely different from one another yet still come together flawlessly as a whole. It's genius.

5 stars.

This is a weird one. Some songs are very 80s pop, which I don't like, but other songs are very early 00s Arcade Fire...which I also don't like. At the same time, this album isn't *awful*. I don't really like it, but I respect its sound, which doesn't really sound like what you expect 80s pop to sound like. I'd maybe give it a 2.5 if I could, but I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt and bump it to 3 here.

So, this is a tough one to analyze. I've never understand Taylor Swift. I'm not a heartbroken teenage girl, so I guess it's not *for* me, but the overwhelming adulation has been confusing because the handful of music I've heard has been pretty basic pop. The annuls of music has spawned dozens of female singer/songwriters that output roughly the same music. This project has already fed me her 1989 album which did nothing to disabuse me of the notion that she is a bog standard, paint-by-numbers pop singer.

This album, however, gives me pause. The opening song, willow, is actually pretty good. Not only that, the lyrics are really thoughtful and impactful. Not necessarily to my personal preference, but OK, I'm starting to see the appeal. The rest of the album, however, is really uneven. There are songs that lean heavily into her roots as a country artist, and fuck that noise right away. After six or seven songs I realize there's very little tonal variety in these songs. Her voice isn't spectacular, and she doesn't really do anything special or interesting with it, and so the songs start to get kind of tedious.

Now, I'm told that she's a lyrical genius and I'll say straight away - no she isn't. That said, there are snippets of VERY good writing on this album. There's a lot of the stereotypical Taylor Swift whining about a mean boy stuff in here, but there's also a lot of really thoughtful descriptions of hurt and loss and helplessness that I can completely see why it appeals to someone going through a breakup.

Overall, I think 3 stars is about right here. There's far too much country-adjacent shit on here to go higher, but overall this is the first time that I see the appeal of Taylor Swift.

This was unexpectedly excellent. I tend to dislike 80s music, and I've never heard of this band, so my expectations were very low. Not only was this awesome in a "surprise, it's actually good!" sort of way, this is excellent in a "I'd probably listen to this on purpose" sort of way.

Apple Music has this listed as Alternative, and Wikipedia says this is a punk band. For me, it sounds more like early industrial with a bit of punk and even electronic mixed in. I'll tell you this - it's unlike anything else I've heard from that era. I don't know for sure, but this is certainly an album I would imagine a young Trent Reznor would have enjoyed A LOT.

4 stars, maybe even 4.5. There are several 5 star-worthy songs on this album, but as I try to keep 5 stars reserved for the best of the best, I'm not quite sure I can rank it that high, but make no mistake, despite my dumb, arbitrary star rankings, you *should* listen to this album, because it's awesome.

I’ve never really loved Metallica, though I’ll admit the self-titled black album is a banger and a classic. I don’t love thrash, so their early stuff never appealed to me. I have to say, though, that this album has stood the test of time. It’s funny, though, how something that is so crazy and subversive and “hard” now seems pedestrian and almost mundane! That’s not a commentary on the album, but rather the changing tastes of society.

I’d give this a 3.5 if I could, and I’ll bump it up to 4 stars for a couple of reasons. The dumb reason is because I’ve had a few albums recently that I would have rated 3.5 stars but it dodnt feel right to give them 4 - this one seems about right. The second reason is because I’m well aware of how many awesome rock bands were launched because of Metallica in general, and this album specifically.