This was very pleasant, I think that’s the best word that applies here. Sets a nice atmosphere from the get go and rides it out for over an hour. I don’t have much to say about each individual track, and I’m not sure this album should even be perceived on a song-by-song basis. I’ll take “Raga (Desh) (Dadra)” as my favorite, if I had to pick one.
3/5 throw it on and passively enjoy
Rated 8/10
MIA’s music sounds like a fun street carnival thats politically motivated. Shes really got a genre of her own going here. You can listen to this and be frustrated with how clunky it may sound, or you can take it as creative and charming, hearing sounds/aesthetics that would give was to the era of bloghouse/indietronica to come.
“Sunshowers” is a wildly fun beat that doesn’t match the very *real* nature of the lyrics. It works well.
That’s not the best beat though. “Amazon” might lay claim to that, with an insanely catchy chorus over top of it too.
The bangers keep coming, “Bingo” goes just as hard as the last track.
Last, “URAQT” stuck with me for its whimsical delivery and lighter subject matter.
I think I have to 4/5 this one. A light 4. Lots of little pockets of creative production + great hooks + meaningful lyrics.
Rated 8/10
Is my American bias showing when I say there haven’t been an overwhelming amount of country albums on this list so far? This one was really good. Waylon Jennings can SING. He can BELT.
Then “Old Five And Dimers” takes things back to a sound that was popular a couple decades before the 70’s and it’s SO CATCHY.
“Omaha” is a catchy, more upbeat anthem that I would love to hear in a concert with tons of people shouting the lyrics back.
Lastly, I love the strings in the ending of “We Had It All”. Very touching.
Really good record from front to back anyone that lets their general distaste for country come between themselves and this album needs their biases checked. 4/5
Rated 4/10
Everyone in the global reviews acting like each song isn’t a guitar solo and Lou Reed’s vocals away from becoming something they’d love. It’s not THAT bad. Now, it’s not a great album either. This record was experimental and maybe ahead of its time, it would be iterated on in the years to come.
Some of the programmed percussion & drum machines are really nice on “Rocket USA” & “Chree”. And, for aa jarring as the last few songs are, at least the lead singer commits to the stories he’s telling.
2/5 at least it’s memorable
There are some wildly expressive horn sections that wowed me and at the same time this is just way too long of a listen, no matter how fun it can be at times.
Since it's a live album, I wont highlight a best song, but there are moments when the trumpet is being played with such effort and expertise that it sounds like the vibrato of a human voice. Super impressive.
3/5 listen when you have something else you need to get done!
My slight annoyance with how on the nose this lyrical delivery is gets trounced by my heartbreak for how many societal problems covered in this project have only gotten worse.
"Satanic Reverses" wastes no time digging right into the nitty gritty of all sorts of national and international injustices at the time. Which is crazy because the chorus mentions bailing out banks, which repeated in such horrific fashion in the wake of 2008. Fundamentalists collapsing civil rights in America (if ever that was a real thing). Wow.
"Television The Drug Of The Nation", like all songs about tv rotting the brain, can now be replaced by social media and it all still works.
The INS Greencard song hits a little too hard for just functioning as an interlude.
"Music and Politics" is a wild change of pace but is a much needed look in the mirror, an admittance that true revolution starts from within. Honestly, I take everything he says here even more seriously after he’s added this self-reflective moment into the track listing.
And there's a cover of "California Uber Alles" on here?? Beautriful.
While occasionally clunky (at times it’s as if they took Serj Tankians info dump parts in SOAD and expanded them into full songs), this project is very effective at getting its message across with super specific lyricism that cuts to the heart of soooo many issues in America and around the world. It’s sad that most all of these societal problems persist, have gotten worse, or have taken a new form in the 21st century. I will be going back to this one often. Unexpected 4/5
Rated 6/10
While "spellbound" opened things up well, I found "Into The Light" to be the real hook. It's got a fantastic chorus.
"Sin In My Heart" was maybe the highlight for me though, it upped the energy a bit at a good time to do so in the tracklisting. Siouxsie is just in a league of her own vocally.
Around the 4 minute mark of "Voodoo Dolly" is another faavorite moment of mine as well, what a great way to end the record by speeding things up and making it all very chaotic.
Not the best I've heard from them imo, I think I liked Tinderbox more. But still a solid 3/5 front to back
Rated 8/10
If this album condensed some of its ideas into maybe 55 minutes total runtime, it would be perfect. This is about as close to a 5/5 as you can get without actually getting there.
“Sven-g-englar” is such a quintessential post-rock song, and that’s not the only must-listen on this album imo.
“Starálfur” while very overt and a bit on the nose with its instrumentation at times, is touching and beautiful. Its swelling strings and unique composition are super memorable.
“Ny batterí” is so dramatic at its ending, completely subverting the first few calm moments of the song.
“Viorar Vel til Loftárása” has a sweet piano piece and other varied instrumentation that I feel were really needed to switch things up at that point in the album.
The problem is, as I said before, this record has moments that just go on for too long and do nothing. I’m really sad about it in the context of applying a rating, because Sigur Rós pull off something incredibly impactful on the whole. This was my Radiohead, in many ways. Emotional and tender at moments, then loud and grand at others.
Rated 8/10
It feels very odd to give this album a 4/5. Every song sounds like it was trying to be what would eventually become Maggie May. Yet he does well with most songs on here, both with quick pop hooks and very committed vocal performances. Additionally, there’s a sweet spot of instrumental variation to my ears.
The title track and opener is super sweet, great verse, great chorus. Sounds like it was meant for a crowd to sing along with him.
“Only A Hobo” was a nice tender moment that gets more quiet as the track progress until he brings it back with a loud, rousing end. Love the violin on here.
“Lady Day” had some nice melodies as well. Every song on here is like this, about a love lost or a pursuit of a girl. But each song is varied just enough.
Short and sweet album. So funny that I’m giving Rod Stewart a soft 4/5
I maybe should’ve tempered my expectations for this one a bit. The last Sly album we got was “Stand”, which was super imaginative and creative in all the right ways. Retrospectively, that album and the stuff that Funkadelic was doing around the time of this records release set the bar super high. So There’s A Riot Goin On didn’t quite leap over that bar, but it’s not bad.
“Africa Talks To You” is my pick from this album, it’s very colorful. I also liked “Runnin Away”.
I think some of the music on here is great for vibes listening, but not as great for intensive, active listening.
3/5
Rated 6/10
The title track opened the album beautifully. Bonnie Raitt’s ease of delivery and perspective on aging reminded me of one of my favorite songs, John Mayer’s “Stop This Train”.
My other pick from this album is “Love Letter” for the groove it’s got going on the chorus.
Sadly, like most albums, the back half didn’t impress as much. “Too Soon To Tell” was a nice moody ballad with some sweet slide guitars in the background of the chorus.
I’ll give this an easy 3/5
Rated 6/10
Janet Jackson is here and she's gonna save the world through dance.
Everything on here has such a general call-to-action hopefulness about it. Seems like a thing that persisted into the 90's. Some of this has certainly aged not as well though, like in the song "The Knowledge" with the call and response saying 'no' to illiteracy, bigotry, etc. Just a very cheesy way to structure things. But you can't say Janet's heart isn't in it.
"Miss You Much" is sweet because you can kinda hear the chorus as something her brother could join in with her on - it's very 'Bad' era Michael. Super slick delivery, infectious hook. Definitely my pick from the record.
What I appreciate most about this record is how Janet Jackson's earnesty can cut through some of the late 80's pastiche and cliche on this record. Her soft ballad "Livin in a World" is very endearing, boosted by an incredible chorus, and a pretty crazy ending too.
I also LOVE the beat on "Someday Is Tonight". It sits somewhere between the romantic ballad it intends to be, and hypnotic, surreal waiting room music. Which means this song is PRIME vaporwave material, I wonder if any vaporwave artists hopped on sampling this song.
"Escapade" stood out like a sore thumb as far as it's lyrics. Didn't make much sense at all. Same with "Come Back To Me". Both fine songs, but just all of the sudden nothing to do with Janet's socially-conscious messaging.
Sorry for the very scatterbrained review here. The topics Janet covers here kinda made me get all messy with this one. Handfuls of social action songs followed by handfuls of romantic ballads. My alternate title for this album is "New Jackson Swing".
Solid 3/5 a nice listen
Rated 4/10
“Biscuits” was tracked and mixed really poorly, the bassline overwhelms Method Man’s voice.
At least “Sub Crazy” acknowledged this projects obsession with sub bass and did something interesting with it. I don’t think we’d see echoey, trippy vocals like this until the onset of cloud rap in the 2010’s.
It took until “Release Yo Delf” for my ears to perk up for something. Finally, Method Man shows some life and variance in his flows and delivery. Fantastic interpolation of the I Will Survive melody.
Method Man is really great when he (or his features) is flying off the handle, like on “Mr. Sandman”. Sadly, there is very little of that, especially on the front half; credit to Tical for keeping some of its most interesting songs till the end, but too little, too late. Far too mellow and doesn’t do much to poke its head out from the sea of other WTC albums or solo projects that would follow on this list. 2/5
Rated 4/10
All of this was fun but none of this was impactful. I'd like to hear a pure ska effort from this band though, because it's clear they were/area a ska band at their core.
"Sunday Morning" kinda summarizes this album on the whole - technically well-performed, but a song about nothing that goes nowhere.
Sadly, my pick is the chorus of "Our House", which sounds like a poor interpretation of a song that could be done much better by Talking Heads. Just the chorus too, the verses aren't all that notable. Sad 2/5, the pieces are there but they did not put any of them together.
Rated 6/10
Like all the Madonna projects we’ve had on here so far, this one is very respectable and falls just short of something I’d call fantastic. Even if the production on this one is right in my wheelhouse.
“Swim” has one of many great vocal refrains, with the ‘we can’t carry the sins on our back’ line.
“Ray Of Light” has an even better hook thats made this song worth its popularity.
“Sky Fits Heaven”, more like This Song Fits Me with that late 90’s 4 on the floor kick turning this into a soft trance anthem.
“Shanti / Ashtangi” gave me some questions I need answered. Is this respectful and chill in eastern culture? So many artists use the Indian word for peace and do their ommmm Shantiiii’s. I really liked how Zedd did it in his most recent album. But is this all good? I genuinely don’t know.
This original version of “Frozen” is absolutely wonderful with its breakbeats and mellow yet dramatic atmosphere. It unfortunately escapes me, but somewhere there’s a really good remix or lift of this vocal thats more club-oriented.
Lastly, “Little Star” is a sweet song clearly meant for her child, and the album probably shoulda stopped here. I felt like “Mer Girl” was exactly when I started to tune out.
For my tastes personally this is a 4/5, William Orbit did a killer job on the production, Madonna’s voice is as good as ever. But maybe there’s a bit of meandering here and there. It’s a project that feels a bit stuck between needing to make sure it holds onto its pop essence while experimenting with these other sounds of trip-hop, trance, and eastern music. It isn’t a perfect marriage of the two in totality, but it’s solid over all. 3/5? 4/5? Tough call.
Rated 6/10
Much more fun than most of the dealers choice vanity picks have been on this list thus far.
“Mud In Your Eye” has a certified banger chorus, a little doowop/surf rock influence for good measure. Really liked this song! The way it fades into “Turn Away” is super impressive too.
“Tenterhook” is almost so fun it borders on goofy, but never being too gimmicky.
Strong 3/5 on this one, it’s nothing you haven’t heard before, but at least it’s a good time
Rated 6/10
Yesterday, I mentioned how Napalm Death was more deserving than a lot of 60’s psych rock records on this list. I should know better by now, this generator works its magic and summons a 60’s rock record. Not quite psych, more down the middle rock than anything but still psychedelic adjacent.
“I Can’t Make Your Way” was pretty well done, the ‘ahhhhh’ vocals were just as catchy as the first lyrical bit of the song.
I felt similarly about “Farewell”, with its cyclical vocal melody and aaaahhh’s in the background once again.
I didn’t need songs like “Jeff’s Boogie” to lower the experience with some more typical, unoriginal ideas (even if it was admittedly well performed).
All my kvetching out of the way, this album is pretty solid for what it is. Strong 3/5, maybe a hit song or experimental song away from a 4/5.
Rated 4/10
This is someone’s jam. It is certainly not my jam, but I get it. This is way more deserving of a spot than handfuls of psychedelic records on this list. At least this has some teeth to it.
2/5, the album cover tells all. The horrors persist
John Lennon, like most megastars, seems to be too caught up in his own drama until the end of this record.
"I Found Out" was grating on the ears, and the first instance of a reoccurring problem throughout this record - it feels a bit phoned in on the composition/instrumental side of things. On top of that, Lennon's lyrics are about as impactful as a 13-year-old would allows them to be. "Working Class Hero" and the first half of "God" are a bit shallow, never offering anything beyond surface-level observations or statements. That being said, "God" moves along quite nicely to deliver a very personal message from John on his stance of being in a post-Beatles world.
My pick is "Well Well Well" for it's memorable vocal delivery.
While I must credit this project for finally getting out of it's own entanglements and speaking from the heart with "God" & "My Mummy's Dead" at the end, it takes far too long to get there. Many of these songs sound like glorified demo's that are only carried by Lennon's noteable persona/presence. Very torn on this one, but it gets a 2/5. I could probably revisit this a few times and find it in me to be more kind to it, but this simply didn't land well with me for three quarters of it's run time. I'd like some more elaborate backing tracks if the lyricism is gonna be so stark. Strong 2/5
Rated 8/10
“Astral Plane” captured the charming essence of how simple this bands successful formula was. Slightly funny, blunt, almost just a talking delivery at times.
“Hospital” was a great little story as well as a good time for a mood/tempo switch.
John Richman at the helm here comes off as deeply passionate and just so plainly human. He sings about very real-life things/feelings very plainly but with a great deal of love.
James Murphy, New York based frontman of LCD Soundsystem, has talked about being an artist that borrows/steals from greats from the past - I’m so sure that he got a bit of his delivery from listening to “I’m Straight” on this record. The similarities are prominent.
This might be the best proto-punk album I’ve heard so far. It’s a bit unfair to say that, as an uneducated American who doesn’t know all that much about the full picture of punk in the cultural zeitgeist. But that doesn’t change how much I enjoyed this album after not expecting much of anything from it. 4/5!
