Reviews by jlazerus

The best VU album. Although it feels like they are mocking the inspirational material (Hendrix, doo-wop, etc) sometimes. And yes, very disturbing.

What a wild ride. You are NOT ready for Isaac Hayes’ version of “By the Time I Got to Phoenix,” by Jimmy Webb (look him up - that dude could write some songs) and mostly remembered for the Glen Campbell version.

Isaac Hayes has a fantastic voice and the soul on this slab-o-wax is heavily buttered, baby!

Gross.

Nick Cave can stop trying to prove how weird and cool he is any time.

This is their most unhinged and hopped up work. The Fall are frequently categorized as "post-punk" but this is really as "punk" as anything. I mean, Industrial Estate alone crystallizes everything the punks were about - anger, misspent youth, anti-establishment, anti-authority, delivered with a mocking acserbic monotone, bored , nasty, repetetive. It's 2:01. Genius.

This didn't move me the same way most of Eno's other work does. Though, there are shades of ambient, and the simple melodies that form the skeletons of the music are still there, it feels... partial? Lacks the verve of his other solo work. I think he started getting into production more at this time, so perhaps he was moving away from this musical framework.

Dismal. I'm sorry for whatever happened that made you feel this way. Important in some circles but really a grind.

I should start giving these reviews a title. This one is called: "It insists upon itself."

I don't know what it is about Roxy Music, but it just hits me wrong. Brian Ferry's voice mainly. The tremolos, the up-close recording, the histrionics, the choked falsetto, just all this... trickery. He also always feels a wee bit off-key. Obnoxious for me.

But the guitar work here is great (when you can hear it), and anything with Eno automatically gets some love from me.

I understand the novel ideas here, you know, developing a glam style or maybe sitting solidly in the center of a glam style ("a glam style" is one of the variants of glam that are less cogent even than Mott The Hoople). Dumb themes (Inflatable Doll? C'mon) and ham-fisted drumming are not very glamorous, as it were.

I'm going to regret using "It insists upon itself" for this one, because I'm pretty sure there are some albums coming up that insist much more than this.

The kinks melodies are always enjoyable, don’t have a. Better word than that.
Last of the Steam-POWERED trains is the the required Dylan type song that every band in 1968 had to do.

Is this a Sgt. Pepper’s parody? Maybe just a pop music parody in general. Or not? The last half of this album is nothing short of genius. Really influential, great songwriting. Possibly the first concept album. Phenomenal Cat is incredible.

Reasonably nice electronic pop. Recognizable. You can't fault the Pet Shop Boys, can you? I mean they're no Led Zeppelin, but that would be apples to oranges now wouldn't it? Anyway, a heavy heavy ABBA influence here, mixed with Depeche Mode (if they were trying to be legitimately endearing and entertaining). The album has a nice, romantic feel throughout, some unique synth sounds and orchestration, and Neil Tennant has a distinctive, rather pleasant voice (if slightly nasally).

Also CONGRATULATIONS TO ME for passing the theoretical halfway point in the list!

Really striking. I'd heard of Steve Earle but never listened to him. Listening to all the albums on this list is often (too often) an academic exercise. But this actually affected me emotionally. Surprising and effective songs. Sincere work in a vast sea of insincerity - if I hear Irish guys using a fake twang ever again (or even Elvis Costello, for that matter), I'm just going to put this album on and try to put it out of my mind.

Unusual progressive jazz, I'd call it. Really interesting instrumentation - vibes, accordion, scratchy percussive violin that fill out a Classical atmosphere, for lack of a better phrase.

Cool cool cool ol skool progressive hip hop. These guys have Fun and -tip makes an appearance. No complaints.

The UK 🇬🇧 centric nature of this list rears its ugly head once again with a vanity project from a side musician in Pulp, a band who is inexplicably acclaimed. I played this for several people who agreed that it is NOT in fact on par with someone like Chris Isaak, and is a lame derivative of the source material (Roy Orbison and Elvis were sacreligiously mentioned).

Once again: style before substance.

The consensus was ”this sucks,” and I’m glad my squad backed me up on that opinion.

Lots of callbacks to better musicians - Elvis of course, but also The Beatles, Stones, Pink Floyd, VU, etc. The heavier stuff got my attention but nothing here sticks or got me excited. Drug songs are getting tedious around here too. Enough.

Silly

A less enthusiastic generic Britpop with an obligatory Beatlesque framework. Uninteresting compositions, quite contrived and soulless. Well executed but lame. I’m with a lot of others here asking why this is on the list.

Mostly offensive, which is the point. Solid example of this genre of rap. Always like to see Flav show up.
I hope stuff works out for Ice Cube, sounds like he has a lot of problems 😏

In a word , GROOVY!

Highly influential mellow funk. There are some forward looking sounds on here: oscillating guitar lines, keyboards of unknown origin, bass lines that rock you and roll you. Sly’s voice is amazing too. Really entertaining album.

There's quite a bit to like on this. The Latin and western influenced stuff was leaps and bounds better than the plodding downtempo dirges like "The Book and the Canal" or "Not Even Stevie Nicks..." which sounded to me like they were trying to hard to sound like Arcade Fire or some other generic 2000's alt-rock, and the singer's weak voice made me cringe a bit. The instrumentals were superb, however. A valiant effort overall, the vocals were not to my taste but some good musicianship and interesting genre-bending approach.

Did not know I was such a fan of British Folk. Between Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, and now this, I have a whole new genre to go explore. So for every Tupac or Ice Cube this list gives me, I get (hopefully) a little antidote to the hate with a Bert Jansch or Richard and Linda Thompson.

This was a "delight." Sweet songs and fantastic virtuosic guitar that doesn't overstay its welcome. You can see how someone like Paul Simon would catch this as an influence, especially with him being in England around the time this came out. Happy to discover this!