Reviews by john

Track A - in a nice little pocket at first, then grew way out of pocket. Like a beautiful unfolding of energy in the style of free form jazz.

Track B - much more romantic, meant to make the listener sway and swoon. Even with all the speeding up and slowing down again, still left its biggest impression with the early part of this song.

Track C - some needed moments of relative silence at the start. Adored the steel guitar halfway through.

Track D - more of the guitar! A lot more! So emotive. The piano part around 5 minutes in reminded me of Clair De Lune. Also just insane how much the band packed into one long song.

Far from my wheelhouse but super enjoyable. You get a lot of colors and waves of sound in so many different forms. 4/5!

*HIDDEN GEM ALERT*

The amount of substance and heart this record holds feels like rain after a drought. I’ve been on such a relative bad streak of albums lately - before today.

Excellent blend of country and rock (which rarely feels unique like this song does) in the opening “Life’s Greatest Fool”. Insane groove pocket the drummer and bassist create, all for Gene Clark to earnestly croon over.

The following “Silver Raven” sounds like an Eagles song they just didn’t bother to sing harmonies on - which is to say it’s a great little country outlaw ballad.

These first two songs were just getting things started. The title track offers a little funky yacht rock flare. The moments of near silence on “Strength Of Strings” was well-placed. The melancholy chord progression on “From A Silver Phial”, while a little prototypical for its time, added a nice dynamic to the track sequencing.

I’ll admit that “Some Misunderstanding” was a bit needless, and just a more dull version of its preceding song.

Speaking earlier of songs that sound like Eagles tunes without the vocal harmonies, “True One” is VERY similar to “Lying Eyes”. Not that either are even that different from a lot of popular country rock songs of their time, but still. Soooo similar.

“Lady Of The North” closes out a second half of the album that isn’t as impactful as the first. But that from half is so good that it carries this thing right up to a 4/5. I heard a lot of this stuff on the radio stations my parents would listen to when I was young, I think I have a decent ear for what makes this a solid record.

Just go listen to Give Up by The Postal Service instead. It does twee, turn of the century futuristic electronica so much better, with so much more impact. With pretty much every other noteable Radiohead record already in the list, why include this one?

Like, what is “Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors”? Cyclical, dreary, boring. Good Radiohead is meditative, thoughtful, and moving. This feels like excess noodling. I can’t even call it growing pains in their constant sonic evolution, as they did that hybrid electronica/progressive rock sound better both before and after this record.

In the midst of this relatively horrible album streak, I already hit my quota for overtly sad person music last week with that Silver Jews record I surprisingly enjoyed. This misses that mark in totality.

Maybe a 2/5 for the sum of its parts, but sometimes you gotta boom an album. 1/5. “Morning Bell/Amnesiac” sent me over the edge

A humble but ultimately underwhelming offering from The Foof. Hindsight has probably negatively impacted my listening experience with this record. I’m sure it sounded a bit more fresh and current at its time, but FF have since gone on to make a handful of hits that are pretty much these songs but better.

All that being said, huge props to Dave Grohl for apparently playing most of the instruments on this record. It doesn’t make the music any better, but it is wildly impressive. “Floaty” was the best song imo, heavy emphasis on harmonics and more colorful sounds, a bit like the band Hum.

Strong 2/5

Love Bowie. Absolutely love him. But The Next Day should be left off this list. I hope to have this much energy and creative juice as Bowie did here, someone well into his 60’s who survived a heart attack. But that’s about the most overt kindness I can muster up for this project.

“The Stars (Are Out Tonight)” was probably my favorite. “If You Can See Me” was also exciting.

Giving this a 2/5 it feels like telling your old dog he can’t have any more treats while he looks at you with puppy eyes.

Tangentially related rant. Today, my coworkers (one of which showed up late) vocalized how they feel music hasn’t changed or evolved in the past while. That grunge & Dave Matthews were the last things that made them ‘feel’ the music. Some of you people giving this a 1/5 are my coworkers.

If you’re 500+ albums into this list and you’re giving it a 1/5 stars, why??? This is at the very least unique and challenging — something that can’t be said for most of the 8 Neil Young associated projects, or the umpteenth new wave or britpop inclusion on this list. DOA is fine! God forbid we venture away from typical song structure.

“Dead On Arrival” had some great synth work for its time. Love the use of reverb.

“Hometime” was my favorite, reminding me of one of the b-side songs from Brian Eno’s Another Green World.

And “AB/7A” was actually a pretty bright, shimmering little song that added a little color to the album.

A totally welcome inclusion that probably did a lot of leg work for industrial acts, dark electronic music, etc.
A good exercise for the ears, 3/5

Not a ton to say about the substance and individual songs of this record, but I did have a realization about two thirds of the way through listening. I think I finally can differentiate the ethos and aesthetics of British punk vs American punk (or post punk, in this case?).

Anyways, wasn’t crazy for this one, may not ever be crazy for most things from this time and genre, but I feel it’s angry disposition and feel it’s rage. Strong 2/5

700 albums!

The intro had me all shaken up! Breaking the 4th wall is very ahead of this albums time, yet a spoken word introduction is also perfectly of it's time. When it all ran right into the second song, I was super pleased. Rarely do you hear anything so inventive with it's song sequencing from something so old.

From then on out, I am sad to say that the tapering spotify play numbers are an accurate indicator of the quality of this album as it goes on. A few charming moments like singing about a honkeytonk angel, or the general bravado of the chorus of "Pride".

Passable country, above average for it's time, great album cover. Softest 3/5 for winning the inoffensive game.
Best line: "I'm getting sick and tired of being lit up like a Christmas tree."

"Good Mourning/Black Friday" was a standout for having a memorable, slighlty softer intro. But it wasn't anything crazy, I feel like so many metal songs from this time had the slow, plucky guitar melody intro. Good, but nothing mind-blowing.

"I Ain't Superstitious" was pretty fun too, didn't take itself seriously, a little honkeytonk rock influence, an insane guitar solo.

Maybe a slightly better second half than first half, but nothing overtly insane. 3/5 love the bone guy mascot

what in the hell is this? Listen to "I Can't Sleep" and be serious. "There She Goes" is a good song, not a good album.

Every single song sits in the same twee, shrill, short register. Except "Looking Glass". A drop of water in a musical desert.

This was a slog. Nothing is being said or done here, and it's also not good at saying nothing

A tiresome 2

Such a strange, fascinating crossroads of so many genres. It feels like I’m listening to a fictional band from a hyper-stylized cartoon.

I don’t have any standout songs to speak of. These guys all seemed to be a bit ahead of the curve, especially for Americans - you can hear the new-wave wanting to bust out of this thing. Fun 3/5

Into My Arms. That is all. Every other song pails in comparison. If this album were 12 Int My Arms, it would be a 6/5. Sadly, it isn’t, so one feeling 3/5

I LOVED this thing.

A swanky opening song had my ears perked up a bit. This song basically dunks on Kings Of Leon’s entire discography.

“Ambulance” was strikingly catchy with its acapella arrangement, slightly reminding me of the material on Hawaii Part 2 by Musical Miracle.

“Dont Love You” was so assertive and hypnotic. This whole project has so much character bleeding through its cracks, and I think this song is the best example of that.

Even the bonus songs were good! “You Could Be Love” is fighting for my favorite song on the album. How haunting!

I really wanted to give this a 5/5. I listened to it back to back times. Ultimately, at this very moment, it falls just short of perfection. But I’m hoping the edit ratings feature is around when I complete the last 400 albums I have left to go, because this could be a true 5/5 on revisit

You know what? I didn’t hate this. I really expected to, but didn’t hate it. I have a low tolerance for sad bastard music, but this was solid. Something about it was relatively homely and forthcoming. Not trying to make something fancy of the sadness or slices of life it portrayed. Everything was presented nice and plain. I respect that.

“I Remember Me” and “Friday Night Fever” were my clear favorites. 3/5 you alright sadboy

Something about this record feels off. I can’t quite put my finger on it, I don’t think I’ll have proper words for it. But it’s like some of those late 2010’s Coldplay records; there’s some fleshed out pop songs (“Wrapped Around Your Finger”, “Every Breath You Take”). But then there’s a flatness to it all, as well as a hint of tone-deafness. The “hey Mr dinosaur” song about living in fear of the bomb? It has a good heart, but is so pedantic that it’s basically dead on arrival.

You can’t ask the world of this project, you’d be missing the point to perceive it as any more than a pop, or at least pop-adjacent record. But even with a lowered guard, this is a mixed bag.

Strong 2/5, the sounds and genres these guys pull from tend to be more interesting than the way they put those sounds together for Synchronicity.

It’s a bit like if Kurt Cobain was really trying to carve away at a sound that would later become pop punk. Which is exactly why “Come Out And Play” was included in a THPS game and every other extreme sports montage of it’s time.

“Bad Habit” is the inner monologue of my coworkers who openly admit they scream at drivers almost every day on the way home.

“Self Esteem” makes my thoughts about the Kurt Cobain comparison especially true. I know a lot of guys wanted to sound like that around the mid-90’s, but this is a bit insane. I think I got a bit bored around this point in the tracklisting too. It’s all west coast surfer punk rock from then on (complete with the almost skapunk “What Happened To You?”) -- a novel concept at the time, now a niche sound from a bygone era.

I’m feeling on the slightly positive side of a 5/10. Hindsight is unfair to this album, as Blink-182 would soon come along and crush this genre in a more refined, digestible, fun manner.

Pleasant and goofy at its best - some funny vocal deliveries are probably the highlight. For as large as the Trout Mask Replica legend looms large (still haven’t had that one yet), this is pretty normative.

I don’t know, I think there are better, more impactful listening experiences if you really want a late 60’s psych rock record. Of which there are aplenty on this list

Pleasing but not exceptionally noteworthy. Sits in the Alanise Morrisette register. The title track is great, then right after that the more electronic “Stars All Seem To Weep” was a stellar switch up to a more electronic sound.

Other than that? Meh. The music is a 3/5, the inclusion of this album on a specific list is 2/5. Gotta be in one of the biggest slumps so far, but thats coming off the heels of a crazy good run of records

So unmistakably bad that I have to believe the creator of this list, who has a clear affinity with British new-wave, saw those words and blindly put this album on the list.

1/5 go listen to my 2025 AOTY I Love My Computer by Ninajirachi

It’s “Twisted”. The best song here is “Twisted” and it’s not even close. It’s strangely exciting for a closing song on an album that’s relatively mellow, but it’s an amazing song.

The other great appeal to most of this record is how open Mitchell is about feelings of anxiety or doubt. Probably didn’t hear that a ton at the time of this albums release.

An easy 3/5