Reviews by jf01

This album peaked in the first two songs. When every song after that was basically the same, there were diminishing returns.

When Springsteen says he modeled “state trooper” on “Frankie teardrop,” I get it. Especially that yawp at the end.

I think I listened to this whole album once in 1996 or 1997 and didn’t think much of it then beyond liking two songs (beautiful people, tourniquet). As an adult, it was a genuine disappointment to learn how easy the guitar riff for Tourniquet is / how everything cool about its sound is pedals or production.

Let’s see if the adolescent hatred hits more now, when I’m a middle-aged man!

And: embarrassingly, I did kinda like it.

I made it all the way through and I was only a little bored

I was not looking forward to this at all. I felt like I knew what it would be just from the cover, the terrible band name, and the Wikipedia snippet clipped here.

Suspicions confirmed. Got to track six.

I like Dylan and I can point to other reviews to support that, but I’m not sure why we need a live album of his on the list. I’ve gotten the appeal of other live albums here (Sam Cooke, Allman Bros, James Brown, Jerry Lee Lewis — all energetic performers who brought a little something extra live). Not the case here.

And if we’re going to hear this concert, we really deserve to hear the part where the dude calls Dylan “Judas.” That’s the whole point of this concert!

https://youtu.be/RViHf4fABxI?si=cZS7a9SGHUoG8q75

This album was not familiar to me, but it’s great. Especially, the songs backed by strings are so beautiful.

A little disappointed this is the latest Waits album on the list. Justice for Mule Variations and Real Gone!

I thought about a 2, but I couldn’t make it through the whole album and that’s usually a 1

This. Was. Awesome.

I like the title track. “You drive me crazy” is ok. Everything else I really disliked.

Oh hell yeah, let’s go. One of the best opening tracks on any album ever. Then pictures of you? Come on. What a 1-2 punch.

This is an album that justifies its run time, and each track justifies its own length, because the whole thing is so cinematic and immersive. (Looking at you, Metallica’s black album.) I don’t quite love it enough to give it a 5, but it’s also early September and the sun is shining. Give it a couple months and this will hit just right.

This was tough to get through. Every time I noticed him, the male singer(s?) was ruining a perfectly good Bjork song.

I need to come up with a keyword I can ctrl+f for to indicate an album I need to return to. I’m giving this a 3 now, but it could be a 4 or even a 5 with more listens, I think.

What do you get when you combine a genre I generally dislike and an artist I’ve never gotten? Genuinely one of my favorite discoveries of this project, obviously.

If this were some objective rating of music, I’d definitely go higher. But it’s not—to be honest, it probably can’t be objective. And I really don’t like this.

I’m familiar with a few of her albums, but I must have skipped this one. I think she’s a little of a one-trick pony, but it worked for me here.

I saw Tortoise live in a warehouse in Dubuque, Iowa, in maybe 2010, which was awesome. They had some synth I’ve never seen before or since that was played like a marimba.

Yep, definitely a Steve Winwood album. Honestly, this was going to be a 3 but the last two songs bored me so much it’s dropping to a 2.

I got a push notification that Trump was deploying the national guard in DC because crime is “out of control,” even though it isn’t. About a minute later, as I was finishing reading about the deployment, America Snoring began playing. Eerie.

This was maybe a 3.5. I liked the title track a lot.

Is it a 3? Is it a 2? Every other song had me ping-ponging back and forth. I’d like a song ok or think there was a great bridge in it, then the next song she’d growl (like a hound of love?) and I just couldn’t do it.

I think, on balance, it’s a 3. I really liked “night of the swallow.” I really disliked the donkey impression that ended the album. Such is the duality of this album.