Reviews by jf01

This album helped me connect some dots I had not previously connected:

https://comedybangbang.fandom.com/wiki/Martin_Sheffield_Lickly

Well, this is a first. This album was literally next in my queue of albums to listen to anyway. I was going to listen to this album today no matter what the generator produced. Thanks for saving me some time today, generator.

And I liked it, too, so that’s a bonus.

Pre-listen: It’s been years since I’ve listened to this all the way through because in 2009 I decided “while you wait for the others” was an amazing song and “two weeks” was a top-10 song ever, so all I’ve done since is listen to those on repeat.

Post-listen: yep, still those two above everything else. “Ready, able” and “foreground” are the next tier.

Definitely the first Kiss album I’ve listened to front to back. Besides “rock and roll all nite,” and “Beth,” I’m not sure I’d heard a Kiss song before this. But it was generally what I expected. Beth is a great song, the rest was reasonably fun. I don’t think they have a new convert to Kiss Army, but I didn’t hate it.

I made it halfway. I get it.

Would have been a 3 if European son lasted much longer.

If you enjoyed this, the “making of” box set that came out last year was a pleasant way to spend a few hours.

During the first chorus of the first track, which I’d never heard before, he sings, “I had too much to dream last night … too much to dream.” I knew he was going to sing the second “too much to dream,” and I suspect everyone else listening to the song for the first time did too. What is it about music that conveys that information to us? We all know, from some kind of cultural imprinting, what’s coming next. I thought that was interesting. More interesting than that song or any other song on the album. But it was fine and under 30 minutes. Efficiently average.

I wish to time travel to the room where the band discussed writing, recording, and including on this album the final track, so I can encourage better decisions.

I listened to the first Streets album when it came out. Based on that experience, I skipped every subsequent Streets release. That was the correct choice.

I hated almost every second of this, and my streaming version had two bonus tracks that were both takes on “girl from ipanema,” which may be my single least favorite song in the canon. I listened to one of them before I caught my mistake. If 0s were permitted, this would be a 0.

Couldn’t finish

I saw a review on this site that says this album “starts slow.” I try not to judge too harshly, musical taste is subjective, etc., but come on. Three straight pop classics to kick this off. Unless that person literally means “the first 29 seconds of good times roll are a slow, gripping build into a perfect pop song,” I don’t believe they actually think this starts slow.

At one point in my life I made a list of tiny details in songs I really loved, and the part in “just what I needed” where the snare is on 1 and 3 was perhaps the inspiration for that list.

And I always forget that I like “you’re all I’ve got tonight”, “moving in stereo”, and the chorus of “all mixed up” too. So, roughly, it’s three songs I love, three songs I like to varying degrees, and three songs I think are meh. That’s probably a four.

“Holiday in Cambodia” was one of my favorite songs in high school. Don’t think I ever listened to the whole album, but this was fun.

“I want you to love me” was my SOTY in 2020. Still good.

I was introduced to this album by a coworker at my first real job out of law school. But I probably haven’t listened to the album front to back in a decade. I remembered it being 4-ish, with “earn enough for us” the clear standout and the only song I regularly revisit.

I think it’s a bit of a letdown today. More in 3 territory.

I see why he got into ambient. The second half of the album is much stronger than the first.

There’s absolutely no way I need to hear one KoL album before I die, let alone three

Favorite jazz album, favorite jazz song (psalm)

3.5 rounded down

Been sort of dreading this one because it’s maybe the quintessential 4.5 album for me. First disc unimpeachable (except wild honey pie, which even they would probably admit is a throwaway, so no points deducted). Second disc a lot iffier, especially rev 9. Here’s what I wrote 1.5 years ago when we listened to every Beatles album over a summer:

“I remembered this as a good first disc and a mediocre-to-bad second disc. Upon repeated listens in just a few days this week, I think it's more like a masterpiece of a first disc and a second disc most artists would claim as their best work. It may simply be that the last time I listened to this all the way through was in high school (when "I'm So Tired" was briefly my wakeup song on my cd alarm clock--don't act like you're not impressed) and nowadays I have more patience for the softer ("Long, Long, Long", "Honey Pie", "Mother Nature's Son", and perhaps especially "Cry Baby Cry") and weirder ("Savoy Truffle", "Everybody's Got Something to Hide...") tracks. I had a very hard time picking a favorite track, and there are five or six others that might get it on some other day [editor: that day, and today, it’s while my guitar gently weeps]. The audacity is a double-edged sword: I'm impressed by pulling off 20+ outstanding songs in multiple genres, and a little put off by the handful that have never done it for me (number nine, number nine, number nine). It's a bold, incredible album, but a 10 feels generous for an album where I'd say there are 4-5 skips, including an 8-minute one.”

I gave it a 9/10, and that’s where it stands today, too. Felt a few songs overstayed their welcome (Birthday’s “welcome” lasts about two seconds), but I have to acknowledge that’s probably influenced by having another double album and a triple album in the last ten days. Both were great, as is this, but I’m tired, boss. (And I swear if we get that Ella Fitzgerald album tomorrow…) But even though I struggled through the second disc, it doesn’t feel right to give it a 4/5. The album as a whole is better than that. Very soft 5, with a strong glare directed at Revolution 9, Birthday, Sexy Sadie, the final halves of Helter Skelter and Yer Blues, and Good Night.