Reviews by jlazerus

JUST thinking about how this is my favorite WHO album, unfortunately, the original vinyl running order isn't available (apparently) on Apple music. There are (it looks like) three versions of what is called "Live at Leeds" on Apple Music, one of them a heart wrenching 4 hours in length. All are remastered and have material that wasn't on the original, mostly the rest of Tommy stuff. This was a time in their history when they played the entirety of Tommy at their shows, along with extended jams of My Generation, blues covers, and it was the most exciting thing in rock. Better than the theatrics of Led Zeppelin, I would argue, because of the pure spontaneity and intensity The Who brought to those performances. Singular.

So are we thinking about albums or are we thinking about The Who's live performances from this era? Whoever is managing the music post 2000s wants us to hear the whole concert and ignores the single LP as the sonic explosion that it was. The Tommy stuff is intellectually stimulating, but I think the original LP RIPS YOUR FACE OFF from front to back, whereas throwing some of the softer more thoughtful stuff onto the second half sort of moistens the whole proceedings.

Subject two - if you see films of this stuff, try to watch Keith Moon and how his playing intersects with Pete. Ungodly. Absolutely some of the best rock music ever created.

Definitely his best material since Let's Dance (which wasn't all that great, albeit one of Bowie's most popular). Some of the darkest as well, putting it in league with ★.

Bowie's albums are always complex and span vast galaxies. This is no exception. Lots of lyrics to pore through backed by incredibly skilled musicians.

Bowie has a weirdness that is his ands his alone. This album captures that so well. There are some sonic throwbacks to his earlier material, but that isn't here for nostalgic reasons. And the references are so indirect, unless you're very familiar with all of Bowie's catalog, you won't notice.

I had to listen to this three times to get even a small idea of what Bowie was trying to accomplish. It's great - deep, creepy at times, multidimensional - reminds me most of Lodger, being like an observer traveling from place to place. In this case it's all places in the mind. A lot to unpack. Beautifully complex and, as ever, grateful to have lived at the same time as David Bowie.

The start of REM's downfall. This one was definitely phoned in. Orange Crush is great, and World Leader Pretend is one of my favorite REM songs. But mostly disappointing because they had set such a high bar for us fans earlier on in their catalog.

Even the worst REM is still enjoyable, though. Mike Mills, Peter Buck and Bill Berry always sound great. And Michael Stipe is nothing if not entertaining and usually poetic. You can feel a self-consciousness about the change of direction I think, and that brings it down.

Challenge music!!! As pretentious as I imagined.
They’ve been listening to Thom Yorke way too much.

Do I have to listen to this?

I don't really know what to think about this. Sid one is a long jam on Bo Diddly's "Who Do You Love," and it has some fun moments. Overall I was far more irritated than inspired. The little guitar experiments - harmonic tapping, scraping the string, etc. - just annoying sonically. "Cavalry" was rhythmically inventive but, like the rest of the album, lacks energy.

Noodling. Self-indulgent and doesn't add any value to the song.

I guess this is then the perfect template for every country-rock flavored jam band that came after, so, good job?

Writing this review late because I skipped it earlier and I wish I hadn't considering the milquetoast albums that I got at approximately the same time.
Funky grooves, scary lyrics, I'm not f****ing with NWA. Extreme, inventive. Not a gangster fan but this is... as serious as they are (Fuc the Police) there's still enough self-awareness about being entertaining it just works better. You don't have to pretend your lived experience was different from them to enjoy this. High 3.

Progressive-death-folk?
Has potential. I wanted a less polished production. This felt very academic, kind of showing off their chops, demonstrating a style. Nothing really hooked me though and mostly derivative.

If you're going to do your version of Folk, the lyricism needs to take center stage. This is, again, kind of a stylistic exploration without having much to say.

That droll singing voice again. Too cool for the turn-of-the-century. Middle-class white suburbanites don't usually have much to say though.

There's a lot of mid-nineties mediocre EDM on the list, and this definitely counts among them. Not completely awful: "Open Up," "Afro Left," and the opener "Release the Pressure" were good. Really enjoyed the eclecticism, but this didn't make me want to jump up and tell anybody "You must listen to this before you die!!!"

I don't know, man. Pretty negative POV, first track over-uses the n-word - I get it, I get it, we're pointing out the racism and hypocrisy both north and south - at this point I need solutions, not more complaining.

That said, Randy Newman IS a great songwriter, and I'm thinking (after hearing this album) this is what Tom Waits is trying to be. BUT: extremely self-righteous and holier-than-thou, so for me, off-putting. Don't come in here with your class-struggle bullshit.

OMD is highly influential minimalist post-punk electronic pop that was not unenjoyable on first pass and became more interesting subsequently. More vital at a higher volume.

Still don't know what they're talking about really. But it's okay, our vocalist is a good singer and contrasts the artificiality of the tracks nicely.

Again, this bears repeated listening. A lot of what i thought was derivative at first sounded much more purposeful, experimental and passionate the second time around. Interesting record.

Stevie Wonder number 4!!!
And in 4th place I'm sorry to report. :(
Just really like his funky stuff SO MUCH MORE than the love ballads. This album is a little less thoughtful than the ones that come after. "Boogie On" and the "You Haven't Done Nothin'" are SO GOOD it makes up for a lot.

Dark but still Beck. Slower, Americana-tinged breakup songs pull you into a world of hurt. But little glimpses of optimism percolate up here and there. Like life. Beck is always a good listen.

Most of these albums are not the kind you can just put on in the background and groove to while cleaning the house. This is certainly one of those. Intricate and intimate. A very introspective album, very poetic, very arty. Interesting progressive electro-folk. A lot to take in, I would like to just put this on with the lyrics in hand on a Sunday afternoon in Spring with nothing else to do in order to feel it completely.

Really nice 80s jangle-pop singer-songwriter stuff with a touch of eclecticism and refreshing lack of social-consciousness. Perfect Skin is a killer song. And if you like Lloyd Cole's voice (which I do) then thi is a pretty enjoyable and very respectable piece of work.

IT’S THE VOCALS!!! The vocals are out of tune! It’s cringe-inducing bad country music, falling far short of the profundity to which it aspires.

The upbeat stuff is just goofy sounding and the slow stuff is banal and hits like old gum on the bottom of my shoe and I’m just too tired to do anything about it. You really need two drummers for this? As a drummer I can tell you, you might not even need one.

Not even going to write about the lyrics. God help us.

Sugar Magnolia is alright. This is what you think of when you think Grateful Dead. A rare tight performance, and I think it’s Bob Weir singing actually hitting the notes pleasantly enough. Still awful.

Now that that’s over I’m gonna sit down and “patch my bones” WHAT THE LITERAL FUCK

Great vocalists (of course). The 12 minute album version of Papa Was a Rolling Stone is absolutely worth the price of admission. Everything else left me a little cold, but that whole first side was great.

A lot more interesting and entertaining than I thought it would be. Very intense in places. "The Ninth Wave" was metal. Eclectic and surprisingly rhythm centered. I found it all more fascinating than I thought I would, having pretty much ignored Kate Bush this whole time. I'll probably listen again, the hits (Running Up That Hill and Cloudbusting) are actually really great songs that have aged very well.

A poor man's Roxy Music with a bass player who forgot to tune up?

It would have been better if David Sylvian didn't just wake up before recording this.

Can hear all the influences too much, and I can hear who they influenced, and that bored me. Flat dynamic range and the sleepy vocals made this into a chore for me. Seems like a lot of what might be categorized as Post-Punk from this era had a very droll style, too cool to really rock. No fun.

OHHH, I GET IT NOW! Madonna is like the pop superstar version of David Bowie, what with all the reinventing and \"shape-shifting\" and songwriting ability... nevermind, this bit sucks.
Mostly cringey, the song \"Amazing\" is ok, but even that just goes on too long. Madonna does not sound like she's having fun - which is the first rule for this kind of music. Some interesting production here and there. Why MUST I hear this before I die? Probably would not have been worse off without it. But hey, I made it through.

I had no idea. What a wild ride.
One forgets what great musicians Banks Rutherford and Collins were, not to mention Peter Gabriel's outlandishness. AMazing, arty, bizarre.