Reviews by jf01

I thought I disliked or was meh about half the songs, but then I listened and that’s not true. (“Take me with u” through “darling Nikki” is a fine run that I’m now convinced only feels weak relative to the rest of the album.) Plus 3-4 classics. 5 stars.

This grew on me a little. Just a little, though.

I get a little annoyed with people praising Common for being conscious rap. He’s not that different from a lot of other rap artists. There was one song maybe on here where he mentions police violence. The rest of it was just 00s-era hip hop, nothing special. I do like Testify and The Food. The rest was common.

Duh

I got far into this, but at the end of my commute to work I was still five songs from the end and hadn’t enjoyed a single minute, so I’m calling it. I didn’t *hate* it, exactly, but it’s firmly in the bottom 20% of albums in this project, so I’m giving it a 1.

I like this

As much as I’d like to be a fan, I think Stevie just isn’t for me.

“Sledgehammer” and “in your eyes” are classics. I thought the rest was a little dated and thought him growling “EXCELLENT BIRDS” was silly.

Growing up, my parents owned “cream of Clapton,” which is a greatest hits album, get your mind out of the gutter. “I shot the sheriff” and “let it grow” were on there, and I still like let it grow. The rest of this album sucks.

This is the album people think of when they say they hate 80s music. Or at least it will be for me.

Four million people bought this? Why?

For once the shoe is on the other foot here, because I know this is an album Maggie knows well, and I’m not entirely sure I’ve ever listened to the whole thing. I owned Dookie, as was required of all junior high boys in the mid 90s, and I like the singles off Warning (2000) more than most people do, but I was out on GD after maybe 2002.

So, after listening, I knew the singles. It was basically impossible to miss them as a 20-year-old in 2004. Didn’t know the rest. And I know this is supposed to be a political album, but I didn’t pay enough attention to lyrics to catch a ton of that, after the title track. Definitely liked the album, though.

I didn’t listen to the deluxe edition, just the regular. That was enough. Probably a 1.5.

The White Blood Cells - Elephant - Get Behind Me Satan run is incredible, but this is the weakest of the three.

Two classics of the ‘70s in a row. No doubt in my mind about the rating for this one. With any luck, Horses, Marquee Moon, or London Calling is next.

In junior high, when I bought this album for the first time, I was fascinated by the mythology around it. No name. The four symbols, each representing a band member. The artwork. I really wanted to figure out what Stairway to Heaven’s lyrics were about. My mom told me they’d play it at her high school dances but no one could quite figure out how to dance to it. I distinctly remember Amazon letting you play 30-second snippets of songs on RealPlayer(!) and the StH snippet began at “your head is humming and it won’t go…”; why that has stuck with me all these years is unclear. (My favorite solo in rock history [#basic] begins about 50 seconds later, so well beyond RealPlayer’s reach.) My dad said Misty Mountain Hop was his favorite, which even today strikes me as such a hipster choice. And when I learned the Beastie Boys sampled When the Levee Breaks, I thought that was the coolest.

As an adult, the album is imprinted on me, even if some parts seem a little sillier now. Battle of Evermore feels like a Spinal Tap joke, with LOTR references. The Ted Lasso joke that Stairway is a fingering exercise isn’t totally off base. Four Sticks remains skippable.

But it’s not falling below 5. Liking StH is cliche, I don’t care, it’s cliche because it’s one of the greatest rock songs ever. Black Dog, Levee, and Rock and Roll rock. Evermore and California show the range the band had. MMH is fun. A great band at the height of their powers with only minimal stealing from other bands (sorry, Spirit).

My favorites change every listen, but this time I felt:

5/5: The Chain, Dreams, Don’t Stop
4/5: Go Your Own Way, I Don’t Want to Know, Never Going Back Again, Gold Dust Woman
3/5: You Make Loving Fun, Second Hand News
2/5: Songbird, Oh Daddy

I’ll be honest. I wanted to do that to see if this was a 4 or a 5, and I don’t think that helped. It’s a very 4.5 album.

Meh

Wore this (mp3) album out in 2008/09. If I recall correctly, they got rockier on the second album and kept moving in that direction, but I could have done with another album or two of folk music and harmonies. (I mean, the only point of “heard them stirring” is to flex those harmonies.) I know I listened to Shore, their 2020 album, and I definitely enjoy Helplessness Blues, that second album, but this is the only one I return to with any regularity.

I don’t think this quite deserves its reputation, which is roughly “rap album of the 00s,” but it is a lot of fun for about the first half of the album. (That is not an endorsement of the subject matter of “girls, girls, girls,” but it *is* an endorsement of the soundscape and rapping on “girls, girls, girls.”)

“The ruler’s back” is a great opener. “Takeover” goes so hard (even if I think “ether” is better). “Izzo” is a fun pop song. “U don’t know” was a club banger. “Heart of the city” still sounds great.

I’m not sure I like more than one song after “heart of the city,” and that’s “renegade,” about which I do agree with Nas that “Eminem murdered [Jay-Z] on [his] own shit.” So it’s tough to give this a 5. Probably a 4.

I like this style of music, so this album will get a 3 on the strength of a collective. But really you could have picked virtually any album that sounds like this, and I contend there are *many*, and I’d give it a 3.