Reviews by jaileer5

Yesterday I had the score to The Virgin Suicides by Air, and it was awesome. I don’t know what this album is, but it sounds more like a soundtrack than that album - which is an actual soundtrack.

It’s not unpleasant. It’s catchy in parts for sure, but there are a lot of moments of ambiance and background sounds that make sense if it’s a soundtrack, I guess, but kinda weird if not.

Turns out tabs concept album intended to *sound* like a soundtrack, because the artist wanted to get hired to make soundtracks. Gotta say, that’s pretty cool. It definitely earns 3 stars musically because it’s a bit of a bop, but I’m gonna grant it the fourth because making a soundtrack to a movie that doesn’t exist - and still being able to make it sound cohesive - is pretty bad ass.

There are two ways to consider this album: As a standalone work, or as an official score for a motion picture. regardless, it's excellent. As a standalone work, it is peak Air - breathless, and dreamy, and ethereal while still being accessible, and having enough substance to cause you to nod your head or tap your toes. As the score to a movie - woof. It doesn't get much better.

no sir. I just dont like punk. It's still better than The Rolling Stones.

I think it's really quite good, if you like Depeche Mode. I happen to like Depeche Mode, so it's very good. Is it 4-star good? Who knows? If we're grading on a curve, and there was never any music after 1989, it's a 5-star banger. Alas, music was produced in the 90s onward, and so this is probably a 3.5 at best.

Look, I'm going to give it a 4. I'm not absolutely sure I think it's earned it, but for 80s music, it's pretty awesome. It's unique, it's influential, and it holds up.

Sadly, not for me. I think the pieces of a good album are here, but my god it’s tedious. In isolation, perhaps, I would like the odd Lana Del Rey song. But a full album is a slog.

If you *must* listen to 70s rock, you can absolutely do worse. I kind of like it for what it is. It gets too southern rock at points, and there is a corny song or two, but overall, it’s pretty decent. That said, it’s a 30 minute, 9 song album. There’s no fat to trim, so 1-2 corny songs can easily knock a star off.

I’ll be honest, it was better than I expected it to be. I’m not sure I think it was *good,* but I can definitely see why this band is so influential.

Firstly the bad: I cannot stand her voice. I don’t really like the punk affectation in general, so that’s no real surprise. That said, it doesn’t sound out of place. Like, in isolation, it’s shit, but with the music it sort of fits, if that makes sense.

And so the good: it’s super creative. It definitely sounds like what is is: an 80s, punk-inspired, alt-rock, grunge precursor. But what makes it so influential is that this album was released before alt-rock was really a thing and WAY before grunge.

I can’t give it a 4 because I didn’t love it and I don’t really need to hear it again, but it almost deserves a 4 for its creativity and its future-proofed sound. 3.5

This is African blues. Well, technically all blues is African, but you know what I mean. Good album.

I quite like Sigur Ros, and I quite like this album. It’s definitely mood music, I couldn’t listen to it every day, but for what it is, it is amongst the best.

Nah. It's whatever, I suppose. It's supposed to be funk, but it's like, elevator music funk. There's a couple funky bass lines, but it's not that deep down, dirty, nasty, STINKIN' funk. Kind of boring, to be honest.

I don't hate it, I just don't want to ever listen to it again.

It's completely different than what I normally listen to, but it's squarely in what I would call "World" music. Which is to mean that it's got some cool percussion, some African-style chanting/singing, and some bouncy guitars. It's a fun listen, because it's new (and it's not 70s rock), but it's not earth shattering.

I liked it in the sense that it was pleasant to listen to, and it had me bouncing my leg, but I didn't like it enough to remember the name of it tomorrow.

The first two songs are unlistenable. I tried, but I ended up skipping them, which I seldom do. When I started this project, I knew there would be albums I did not like, but I resolved to listen to them all, to open myself up to new things - except country. Because fuck country.

If I’m being completely fair, it gets better after the first two songs. It’s still bog standard 60s blues-tinged rock. Which is fine sometimes, but the country stuff is unforgivable.

I really don't want to listen to this.

It was what I thought: syrupy 1990s R&B-tinged pop music. There are a couple decent songs, but it's so overproduced it's hard to listen to. constant layered vocals, or someone who sounds like Diddy mumbling about something, or something that sounds like birds twittering for some godforsaken reason.

Extremely OK. Some songs I liked a lot, some songs I wasn't too keen on. Wouldn't be mad to listen to it again.

I have never done acid. The same, surely, cannot be said of the people in this band.

I very much love Nick Drake's voice. I love the Pink Moon album. This one, I think is very good, but not up to the level of Pink Moon. It feels like he tries to maybe go a bit too pop with this one? Maybe trying a little too hard to make radio music? I don't know the story behind it, but to me, Nick Drake is almost timeless, because he makes his own music, and it's unique. This album was very good, but had some songs that I felt like they sounded like Drake trying to fit himself into a box where he doesn't quite belong - and because he's *so* good, it's very good, it's just not transcendent.

I love Bjork. I do not love this album. For the first time, I think I see what her detractors often complain about. Normally, I love all the clicks, and beeps, and hisses, and strange background noises that are so inherently Bjork. I feel like it gives her music this lush, complex, and full sound that keeps my attention and seasons the experience. In this album, however, they feel like they're just there for the sake of being there instead of improving the overall experience.

I was excited when I saw this album pop up, so this isn't a situation where I'm just not in a Bjork mood, this album just doesn't connect with me. At all. I'm loathe to give Bjork lower than a 3 star review, but I don't really ever want to listen to this album again, which means it merits 2 stars. It felt like the second half of the album was getting better, but there are so many songs with weird heavy breathing and grunting and...I'm sorry, Bjork, I love you, but this ain't it.

Quite underwhelming, actually. There are a couple catchy tunes, but it's very folksy, almost country in many spots - which I abhor. Neil Young is in this band, but doesn't sing most of the songs - they do a weird rotation between 4 guys. That's fine, just an interesting tidbit, as Neil Young is so famous and the other guys are not. Perhaps that's why Buffalo Springfield didn't last.

This is a 2.5. There are some really nice songs on this album, but there's some dreck as well. I'm going to give it 2 stars because there are just too many country-ish songs for me to elevate it to 3.

Excellent album. Very much mid-90s Trip Hop.

Reveal reaction: Never heard of it.

First 30 seconds: Wait a minute, this might be excellent.

Two songs in and it's on a 5 star pace. I'm a bit blown away, so I'm getting down my thoughts in real time so I don't forget! I'm getting shades of Seal, Killing Joke, Sting, Chris Martin, a bit of Oasis, maybe some Peter Gabriel, and even a little Radiohead. The music is unique and almost orchestral in parts. The lyrics are abstract, but not so much so as to be pretentious, rather thought provoking and beautiful. The type of lyrics that allow themselves to be open for your own personal interpretation - and if they land, they land hard. The vocalist is not your standard rock front man, but wow, what a voice.

So I think it cools off a bit on the second half of the album. It's still very, very good, but maybe not the same high quality as the first half. Consider this another plea for half stars, because this is a 4.5 for me.