Reviews by jf01

I think deceptacon (and another of theirs, “mediocrity rules”) is a great song. The rest of the album is just ok.

It’s a dead horse to beat, but some of these albums do not belong on any “mandatory” list. Nothing in my life is better for having listened to this album.

This singer sounds so much like the Grandaddy singer. That was probably worth a point in itself.

Before today, had two songs liked: stillness is the move and no intention. As I remember it, this album is never quite fun enough or interesting enough, but it tries to be both and ends up unsatisfying on both counts.

I like “I believe in a thing called love” for about a minute. Maybe two. This album dares to ask, what if that song were 42 minutes long? Sometimes the riffs hit right and sometimes the vibe/singing/sophomoric humor really didn’t.

Weird, the mp3 of 11:11 I downloaded off limewire in 2003 didn’t have the depth of the Qobuz streaming version in 2026. Heard some new sounds in an old favorite.

The second half is weaker than the first, and I thought about a 4 as a result. But 5s need not be perfect, and I’ve given 5s to other albums that faded a little in their second half. Gin and Juice, What’s My Name, Gz and Hustlas, Lodi Dodi merit rounding up.

Voices really matter to me, and I love a unique one—I think that’s why I like Tom Waits and Joanna Newsom more than others. But Nico’s does not work for me.

Thirteen is great, el goodo is good, I could take or leave the rest

This was a lot of dumb fun

I don’t remember when I listened to this, but my Qobuz likes suggest it was recently.

I was going to give this a 4 and remark that I’d probably never listen to it again, but I think it’s all killer, no filler, and that deserves more. Even if it doesn’t enter the rotation, I have to recognize how good it is. It’s the rare 50s album that I both respect for its influence and genuinely enjoy 70 years later.

When an album is so unlistenable that I quit after 3.5 songs, it’s like stealing a little personal time from this project. Yoink!

-It has been one (1) day since I played anything off this album on guitar.

-It turns out, over 30 years of listening, it’s easy to memorize even a 2-hour double album.

-It’s truly a credit to Billy Corgan that he can write and credibly sing some of these cringey lyrics. I’m not being sarcastic. I think it’s a skill to pull these off. He truly believes it all, is the trick.

-It’s funny that this site is about to record SP as one of my favorite artists, when the truth is I think they have two masterpieces, one album I like a lot (adore), a couple B sides I like, and then a bunch of awful stuff. Is that a favorite artist? Or is it two favorite albums?

Blur is a band that’s good for two great songs an album, on every album of theirs I’ve listened to.

Parklife has Girls & Boys and Tracy Jacks.
The Great Escape has Country House and The Universal.
Blur has Beetlebum and Song 2.
13 has Tender and Coffee & TV.

But I’ve never listened to this one. Can it buck the trend?

A: not really. I love “for tomorrow” and the rest is ok.

I may like this more now than I did when it came out.

A few thoughts:

-I think the only time I’ve heard this was on the way to Foot Locker regionals in my XC assistant coach’s (a former runner 3 years older than me) car. Kenosha wasn’t ready for us: the bad boys of fading in the last mile to finish in the high 17s!

-is a song whose entire chorus is NIN lyrics a sample, an interpolation, an homage, a ripoff, or some combination of those?

-not enough lyricists count the fucks they use and then write a metatextual lyric about it. NYT, there’s still time to amend that “greatest living songwriters” article!

-In “my way,” he sings “just one more fight about your leadership.” “Leadership” is a more jarring word than any of the cursing on this album. Is it a song about fighting with your significant other, or your boss?

-when he says “to all the ladies, to all the fellas, and to all the people who just don’t give a fuck,” is that an early example of nonbinary acceptance? Was Fred Durst progressive for his time? In this essay I will…

-I had a suspicion the rollin remix would still hit me just right, and it did. A little embarrassed, but not that embarrassed. I like that song and I like the soundscape/production of my way—I would listen to an instrumental version of my way, I’m saying. And i also didn’t hate the mission impossible song—they certainly played the notes of the mission impossible theme. Let’s call that 2 songs (1 for rollin remix + .5 for the other two). So that’s 2 songs on this putrid, juvenile, excessively long album. It should be a 1, but know that if I give it a 2, it’s so this album cover doesn’t appear on my summary page.

-it was a little endearing including Ben stiller making fun of your band

Brimful of Asha was my jam back in the day. For some reason I heavily associate it with the dandy warhols’ “not if you were the last junkie on earth.” I think both were very popular on MTV2 at the time but never quite got the recognition I felt they deserved.

But I don’t think I ever listened to this whole album? Or maybe just once in passing a while ago? I liked it well enough.

Imagine what these songs would sound like if they were fully sketched out!

I gave Thriller a 5, I gave Astral Weeks a 4, I gave Led Zeppelin IV a 5, I gave domestic abuser John Lennon plenty of good ratings, I’ve set a precedent of separating the art from the artist. This dude’s an asshole *and* he made a perfect album.

I love “this woman’s work.” And there are other songs on this album too.