Reviews by jlazerus

Lennon first album after The Beatles is hit and miss, mostly miss for me. Working class Hero is a great Bob Dylan song, and I always enjoyed Ringo. TMI about your headspace, and most of these songs would be more entertaining performed by The Beatles. It’s okay. Challenging.

I love this album. Veers into the avant-garde just enough to be intellectual, but not so much as to be snobbish. Lydon has a... heaviness... or perhaps a creepiness, offputting, obnoxious. It works perfectly with Keith Levine's and Jah Wobble's dubby experimental meanderings. THis really feels like it will fall apart at any moment, it's brittle. Dronelike, it's a very "felt" musical experience. Completely unique.

I usually like World music, but his was way too westernized, I would much rather hear traditional instruments, compositions, and sounds. Their version of "Imagine" was cringey

Like a lot of commenters on other albums, for me this is a reason I'm doing this project: discovering interesting stuff I've never known about.

Jazzy and proggy... surprises around every corner. Somewhat surreal, but pleasant. Purely heartfelt without any noticeable reliance on standard pop or rock forms, although some of the pieces have a childlike näivetè. Really intriguing album, not for everyone. A wee bit Avant-garde.

One of the greatest rhyme schemes in all music from Fast Cars:
"Sooner or later, you gotta listen to Ralph Nader
I don't want to cause a fuss, but fast cars are so dangerous!"

I have a deep and abiding love for The Buzzcocks. This album is a burst of youthful energy like no other. There's some really interesting musical complexity that you won't notice on first listen, or if you have a bias. Things like little key changes, long bridge sections leading into the solo, double guitar attacks, vocal harmonies that ground the tunes in the British Invasion. Goes fast, chews up everything in its path, spits it out. Nihilism for the rejected lover music, more intimate than a lot of other punk from that era.

Nearly perfect expression of the melancholy of becoming and adult in the modern world. Very Existential and kind of hard to listen to, but impeccably rendered.

Deceptively Post-rock in a way: a lot of drones that cycle through a single riff, as instruments float in and out of the main dirge, often atonal, putting a filminess on the song that creates a cognitive dissonance, distorted, teetering on disturbed. Nicely done.

When I first bought this (after it came out) I thought it lacked punch, but hearing it now, I think the band accomplishes something very ambitious. More atmospheric, dispensing with the traditional verse-chorus-bridge rock composition standard. Not something I'll put on every day for fun, but good art nonetheless.

This album was a pain in the ass when it came out and remains so to this day.

Dry-na-mi-tee is a nice nod to reggae but doesn’t set the table for the album unfortunately, and Put Him Down has an appealing energy. But every other song is a slow balladic attempt that drains the excitement of the one before. Not that it’s all bad. The little a cappella “Watch over Them” and the (again) reggae flavored “Seed Will Grow (featuring Kymani Marley) excel regardless of genre. More socially conscious rhymes than not. Sincere feminism runs through it. Much more R&B than rap. Could really easily tip over into “meh” without much effort.

I should have been listening to this my whole life. Killer rock/funk up there with the best Sly and the Family Stone. I can see Vernon Reed and Prince being heavily influenced by this.

FIre and Rain is one of the best songs ever recorded. The rest of the album pales in comparison, but isn't awful. Some doesn't age well (Steamroller Blues I'm looking at you), otherwise an absolute classic. An enjoyable listen, one of the defining albums from a master of the singer-songwriter genre, during its absolute peak era.

Great fun! Experimental bedroom psych-rock that evokes Eno and Devo (a bit) for me, but a little less serious. Interesting overnight sensation story. Enjoyable and innovative.

This dude’s abuse of the English language is concerning. Nobody Girl rocks but a lot of these tunes feel contrived, and Adams’ voice is a bit weak for the grandiosity of the tunes.

Just made me feel more cringey than touched or excited. The rocking stuff is a better fit for him. Enemy Fire is pretty good, feels spontaneous and kind of post-grunge with a Byrdsy harmony and a nice thick snare sound. More of that and you really got something. The more country sounding stuff doesn’t hit the high bar I have for the genre. Self-centered.

Unimpressive synth-pop, an altogether unimpressive genre. Better than Scritti Politti but just a little. I like the band, but their earlier stuff just had so much more edge. Maybe they were cashing in on a trend, which is their right. Not awesome.

Pretty weird document of a man (ok, Marvin Gaye is a bit of a musical genius, but still a man) exposing his inner turmoil, maybe using this as therapy. Not something a lot of men would do. Dude is clearly hurt. It doesn't seem like he is taking any responsibility, but maybe a closer listen would reveal otherwise. Pretty intimate. I can see how this would be off-putting when it came out, and there's a couple of things on here that don't make much sense, like the "Funky Space Reincarnation," but otherwise intriguing. It is too long, though, and a little monotonous.

This early example of extreme metal dubbed Grindcore has its roots in hardcore punk, which had been in a weird self-annhilating cycle of repeating the same forms, thematically and musically for 5 or more years. Over time, the shock factor of punk faded merely due to exposure. So, to counter the complacency of audiences burned out on weak clones of the same thing, some bands cranked up the attitude and the noise. In fact, there was a certain segment of the punk community who took it upon themselves to viscerally express the pain and anger that was driving them insane. Faster. Louder. Screaming about things that shouldn't even happen. Also, they JUST DON'T CARE. Add to this the nihilism of the late cold war and you get music like Scum from Napalm Death: entirely appropriate for the time, and launching new forms of music. Mostly unlistenable and torturous (and that is the point: we're being tortured), it's an artistic statement giving a voice to a subculture that demands attention.

Not everyone listens to music for the same reason. Surprised to see this on the list, it's a good example of extreme music in its early form.

THAT was wild.
Mystical surrealistic angry, complex scenarios of abuse, war, dreaming, outrage, recent and ancient history. Plenty of quiet breakdowns that explode for your moshing pleasure. Good musicians, insane vocals both literally and figuratively.

Morrisey tries to rock here, and mostly succeeds. As far as pop music goes, this has some weightiness. "We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful" and "You're the One For Me, Fatty" are strange and entertaining. Your Arsenal didn't leave a lasting impression, though. It's not as ambitious as the Smiths which is both good - The Smiths wereobnoxious at times - and bad, these songs mostly lack the drama and intimacy of The Smiths, making them less impactful.

Too much Morrisey on the list.

I'm only familiar with Randy Newman's hits, like "You've Got a Friend In ME," "I Love LA," and "Short People." None of which I dislike, they're just out there in the world not doing too much. Then I hear this and it kind of blew my mind. Surprisingly eclectic, fun, philosophical, and funny. It's not rock, so maybe that's why Randy Newman was never on my radar. What a great collection of songs though. I'll listen to this again.

Feels conceptual. The album starts strong and confident, the second song "Somewhere" is a rocker. Then it gets a bit tenative and introspective, finally ending with this dismal character breaking up or losing "Jenny" (possibly and just leaving the world behind, hitting the road,. Feeling sad. A bit of a trope, especially layering in the Americana feel instrumentation (slide guitar, slow tempos).

Sounds like someone doing a parody of Van Morrison.