Reviews by john

In comparison to the previous Supa Dupa Fly that we got to listen to, I'm more casually familiar with THIS version of Missy Elliot - very sharp and full of energy. I think she frontloaded this album with songs she figured would play on the dancefloor or radio; "Bring The Pain" has a hypnotic sample loop, "Gossip Folks" has Ludacris on it, then "Work It' is obviously wildly iconic for its innovative vocal and quirky delivery.

I could see how hardcore early Missy fans coulda been mad at this release - its a departure for the more airy, mellow early stuff produced by Timbaland. This album has a selective, star-studded features list and everything. I can't say I get a lot more out of this presentation of Missy Elliot. I don't think it's way worse or anything, it's just after some of the best first few songs, you kinda get the message loud and clear.

The good: Missy Elliot's vocal presence and confidence, some great samples in the production, and a few hit-worthy bops. And that insanely punchy beat on "Slide".
The bad: an album made seemingly to appeal to a wider range of people

Alright, 3/5!

Only on this bitch of an earth do we get 2 Neil Young albums in a week. How many is it now in total? How many of his albums are on this list?? Not including CSN&Y, I like their stuff a lot more in general.

I'm done airing my grievances, how's the album? It's marginally better.
The best songs are sadly the ones that utilize the CSN&Y harmonization, heard on the closer "Cripple Creek Ferry".
"Tell Me Why" is a well written song with a vocal melody that just makes sense, I like the way it moves up and down.
There's a slight bit more variety on here too, like the Springsteenish piano on the title track.

But that's about where the good ends. There's still a bit too much pathetic woe-is-me going on here, and I swear his voice is even more shrill on this project.

JUST barely does enough to get 3 stars

I don’t know if the review "more fun than watching a wombat in a washing machine" is totally warranted, but this album has its moments!

Got a little bit of that muse/u2/coldplay vibe going on in parts - heard as soon as the 2:30 mark in “Richard 3”.
Got a little bit of that Jack White vibe going on in “G-Song”.

I liked the whirling synth in “Sun Hit The Sky” and how suspenseful the whole song is, I think it’s my personal favorite from the album. The eastern hand-drum line toward the end is so cool too!

“Sometimes I Make You Sad” is quite the fun way to end this project. My quip with this project is that the lead singer is super hard to understand most of the time. I’m not sure if I’m supposed to be paying attention to him or not.
Overall pretty fun, very high energy! Solid 3.

This is such a dealers choice pick, knowing Scott 2 is already on this list like come on. Additions like this make me not wanna play ball - not because of this albums quality in a vacuum, but I yearn for variety and newer albums.

“Boy Child” is very wondrous and tender all at once, it’s pretty good.
“The Old Man’s Back Again” is my highlight of the record, as it encapsulates the clear direction Scott wanted to take this particular project in - it’s a bit of a western/classic/talltale ballad.

Scott is still in galavanting, grandiose, slightly campy form; like he was for Scott 2, like I’m sure he was for Scott’s 1 and 3 as well. Take any of those albums for a spin, you’ll kinda get the point of all of them after you listen to just one of them

I think Neil Young is a twitter yapper born 50 years too early. There seems to be a lot of vague jabs at critics, lots of lyrics coming from a bitter place.

I’m not too sure this deserves a spot on the list. Unless you’re involved in the career drama of Neil Young, a lot of this might pass right through your ears - it did for me.

I liked the twangy guitar and the baseball reference on “For The Turnstiles”. I also appreciated the melancholy, low-lying mood of “Motion Pictures”.

That’s about it though. I don’t have much to say for this one, nothing stuck with me.

I will repeat it ad nauseam: the guitar tones and melodic presence on this project are spectacular!

There’s a pretty big difference in track one and track two/three here. The opener is heavy, melodic, and almost hypnotic. It was hard to pin a genre to it (not that it matters), but I was intrigued. What followed after sounds much more typically punk.
Typical doesn’t equal bad though! “Ex Lion Tamer” is a fairly standard melodic punk jammer with a really memorable four-chord singalong loop.
“Lowdown” has a lot of swagger with its rhythm-guitar-based composition.
It was around this point that I picked up on how they wanted to sequence this album, bunching a few fully-fleshed-out songs with a quick interlude after a while.

The title track once again strikes gold with an excellent guitar section, the tone in particular of the guitar on this one is awesome. The way this song evolves and elevates really impressed me.

Something about how the instrumentation was recorded and processed gives this whole album an above-average melodic quality that I can only compare to Hum’s “You’d Prefer An Astronaut” album.

Unfortunately, the last few songs on the album dont do much, and fade into forgettable territory.

Really well-done project, it deserved more attention than it seemingly got. Lots of fun songs to choose from, maybe “Strange” is my favorite.

This is a super light 4/5 for me. I thought about going 3 stars, but there’s one too many standout moments on here

I am displeased to say the least. You mean to tell me this no-man’s-land earbomb of an album deserves its day in the sun? This isn’t charming diy indie, this isn’t a challenge to the listener. Songs 2-4 specifically are just messy.

“Happily Divided” is at least something, even though it lives under Nirvanas shadow, both for sounding a lot like it’s making an attempt to sound like Kurt Cobain, and for this being a sub pop release. That gives me a solid reason to be a homer and give this album SOME sort of bias. I found no such reason to do so.

This album has an idea of what it wants to be, and has moments of completeness. Lots of intros, like on “Emma Get Wild” give me a vague sense of hope, just for some sloppy vocals and quick-to-stale melodies nosedive it all.

I can’t really pick a whole song as a highlight for me. Maybe the halfway point of “Homemade”, having some success actually sounding like proper indie/grunge for a moment.

Is this a snapshot of a musical time & place? Sure. Is it worthy of taking a spot on this list over [literally insert your missed album of choice here]? Cmooooon.

I enjoyed this a little more than I thought I would! The first song has me thinking here we go again another milquetoast post 2000’s album that doesn’t commit to any one sound or idea. But I was wrong!

I laugh as I say this, but in a way, once again, Bob Dylan’s influence shows its impressive reach. Armed with mostly just a guitar, Devendra Banhart tells some cool stories and paints some fun pictures, occasionally getting a bit abstract with his choice of paint or technique in which he brushes.

Maybe it’s just present in my mind, but “A Sight To Behold” could fit very well into the new season of Last Of Us, with its solemn, rolling acoustic guitar.
“Poughkeepsie” has this little one second nugget at the beginning which sounds like an Aphex Twin vocal stab. It’s nothing significant, but it was fun for me. The real highlight of this song is the prolonged stutter at around 1:40 - it’s one of many examples of how he packs a lot of flavor into songs with just some minimal instrumentation.
I loved the messaging and vivid imagery of “This Beard Is For Siobhan”.
More excellent, eclectic vocal performances in the repetition and pronunciation of “you’re here to get this baby dancing” on “See Saw”.
“When The Sun Shone On Vetiver” might be my favorite of all these though, the way the vocal melody rises upward with some accompanying strings and vocalists.

This is about as strong of a 3/5 stars I can give. I’m left wanting more, wanting the songs to evolve a bunch. But all in all, with lots of conviction in his deliveries, Devendra shows that he was born to be a performer.

Unfortunately, this sounds a bit like the music that was performed by the fictional character Rufus and his band Lincoln Hawk from the hit show Gossip Girl. 90’s pastiche that falls under the Smiths umbrellas of influence, with an R.E.M sound pallet. “Lonely” in particular was a lowlight for me. The singing was the opposite of charismatic, and so was the content of its lyrics. Hard for me to say this, but at least my other infamous 1 star band PiL takes some sort of convicted angle with their sound and style.
Having to go to YouTube for this one when I was at the gym early in the morning was the dagger

I dreaded the idea of listening to this album upon reading its Wikipedia article. But it wasn’t that bad! There were little nuggets of quality songs here and there.

A nice opener in “Darkness Darkness”, folksy and probably inspirational to Led Zep’s work on the IV album.
I’m a particularly big fan of the easy “Sunlight” with those double acoustic guitars, and the “thats the way she feels about you” refrain.
Another thing I liked were the strings on “Quicksand”, then how it ended with that little saxophone lick.
But the one that takes the cake for me is “Ride The Wind”. That’s a Wii shop channel bear right there, they just (didn’t know it yet) embellished it. Love love love this song.

Nothing felt particularly out of place, and almost everything was performed with ease. While I think this general genre and time has compressed ceiling in terms of how GREAT an album could be, this album just about scrapes that ceiling. Good stuff, worth a listen

I enjoyed this, but I do not revere it. There is so much fun to be had, so much energy packed into every corner of this album. I also had the realization that this is basically David Byrne all amped up and fast-paced.

The opening “Uncontrollable Urge” is recognized by all people my age as the Ridiculousness theme song.
“I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” is an interesting cover that’s unique and separated enough from the original that it’s worth a listen.
I appreciated “Too Much Paranoias”, as it leaned into the spirit of this record - high energy, high chaos (for pop standards).
The same can be said for the passages of hollering towards the end of “Gut Feeling / Slap Your Mammy”. I’d pick that song as my highlight of the album.

Maybe it’s not to my taste, maybe it’s a matter of time and place, but I wasn’t jumping for joy after this one was finished. I think many people hold this album in high praise, and I can sorta see that. I respect it but dont love it

Moments of good, moments of shit. Such is the life of an “experimental, trail-blazing album”.

All I can really do is break this project up into moments, as its format & songs evolve in such abnormal ways.

Good moments:
- the first minute or so of “Oh Yeah” with those reversed vocals
- the first half of “Aumgn” is incredible. Eerie and atmospheric, love the guttural chamber vocals at the 7+ minute mark. Like something out of Dune!
- the beachy, wavy drum machine pattern 3 minutes into “Peking O”

The bad:
- most of the first half of the album just feels like it’s figuring itself out and going nowhere in doing so
- the second half of “Peking O”. Eminem is shaking in his boots! The rambling nonsense took me out of the listening experience a bit.
- even for an intense, attentive headphone listener, it’s hard to grab on to many sonic ideas. Kinda like a really strange, hazy dream that you don’t remember

Somewhere between 2 to 3 stars

Not even halfway through this list and this is the third Peter Gabriel album to pull. “So” was incredible and makes a third PG album feel justified, but “Melt” was a little lackluster and makes a third PG album seem redundant.

Unfortunately, this was a bit of a redundant addition as well. Peter Gabriel’s lowlights (in the context of this list, at least) are still fairly admirable. My biggest takeaway here is that PG was sooooo happy to express himself outside of the limitations of a band. What comes of this freedom is something that’s almost too sprawling, too grand and too all over the place at times.

I didn’t realize “Solsbury Hill” was Peter Gabriel - it always sounded like some sort of “Cecilia” Simon & Garfunkel copy.
“Excuse Me” is a very fun barber-quartet-style song, my favorite and pick to listen to from this album. It’s one of the musical ideas that hits its mark.
There are many that dont hit their mark, or dont really add any cohesion to this project. “Down The Dolce Vida” is a fun, massive song, but after so many different musings and explorations of different styles, I was ready to pack it up after this one.

Peter Gabriel is exercising his freedom, and sometimes I can’t keep up with his pace. Maybe a 3/5 in a vacuum, but I have to give it a strong 2/5, he doesn’t need 3+ albums on this list

Well aren’t we just on a roll through our 90’s albums lately. Supa Dupa Fly is a smooth, forward-thinking project that sets itself out from its contemporaries.

The introduction by Busta Rhymes is so effective in making it seem like he’s rolling out the red carpet for Missy Elliot.

I can’t think of many songs that are as nocturnal and as chill as “The Rain”. The stoner anthems dont stop there; “Pass da Blunt” isn’t as easy on the ears, but has a just as anthemic chorus. I’d also like to highlight this song as it sounds like a grand coming out party for Timbaland. Most people who are millennial-aged or younger are all too familiar with that pseudo-beat-boxing mouthy production style at the end of this song.

“Best Friends” maybe meanders a bit too much for my ears, but thats about the worst thing that happens at any point on this record, which is so impressive given its hour run time. I feel like anyone that has a lot to pick apart about Supa Dupa Fly probably has some biases to get over.

Missy Elliot facilitates an atmosphere that made me feel like she was pulling punches — not shorting the listener, just letting the stories she tells or bars she delivers all ride out over incredible production.

Things I liked about this album:
- the vocal processing
- most of the post-recording effects
- “Corrosion” is the best song easily for it’s surrealist feeling
- the message of “Hero”
- “Jesus Built My Hotrod” is goofy
- metal albums often sound like they’re adhering to some impossibly high standards of masculinity, this one doesn’t seem to care as much!

Things I disliked about this album:
- it’s adherence to some basic metal tropes on “Hero”
- songs are too long at times, repeating the same loops without really achieving anything (I’m looking at you, “Scare Crow”)
- a little too atheist, occasionally cheesy

Maybe the most interesting, engaging pre-2000’s metal album I’ve heard so far! Almost a 4/5 stars, I loved that it leaned more towards the crazy experimental sounds towards the end. Appreciate it!

One of the prettiest listening experiences a person can have, anywhere, anytime. Much like other boundry-pushing electronic works of the 90's (DJ Shadow's Endtroducing comes to mind), Selected Ambient Works is greater than just the sum of it's parts.

The album starts with one of the greatest, most arresting, transcendent songs anyone's ever made. "Xtal" has a perfectly muted kick pattern, a shiny female vocal loop, a melancholy set of chords, and a PERFECT additive/subtractive progression. These all come together to make something so ethereal, calming, and other-worldly. Sometimes, I think this is what a journey to the afterlife could sound like. Sometimes, it feels more like a rave in some crystalized palace - like the round room where the organization 13 meets in Kingdom Hearts. Wherever this song takes you, there seems to be a collective understanding of how incomparable it is. No drug can ever take me where this song does.

"Tha" is next, and gets overlooked due to it being preceded by a contender for greatest track of all time. This track buries itself further into the liminal, repetitive, muted space. I've just recently come across early dub techno, specifically the "Radiance" tracks made by Basic Channel. Those songs are the only fair comp i could give to "Tha". It's like listening to a rave going on above ground while you're 15 feet under shimmering ocean water - echoey, glistening, but very much muted.

I was listening to this album on a sunny, warm run, and the world almost felt too alive for these first few songs. Luckily, the album methodically ramps things up for a bit. Then "I" comes on and its just over a minute of completely placid, slighlty somber ambient chords. This project couldve been an EP that stops here and it wouldve already been generational.

What follows is some acid!! "Green Calx" sounds more like what an early 90's uk warehouse was probably like, after the advent of the strobelight, but well before the american usage of an LCD screen, or even a culture of facing the dj, at raves.

"Heliospan" is fairly notable for being one of the more compositionally active tracks. None of this music gets anywhere near pop radio, but I could see this one being the closest - if you put a vocal on top of it maybe?

"Ptolemy" is for sure adjacent to the "rave stab" trope. Usually done with pianos, those little windy, slightly atonal whistle synth hits are so 90's dance music.

"Hedphelym" is the last song that really stands out to me for it's apocalyptic sound pallet. Those dissonant horn/synth notes come together to make things seem like you're hiding out in a cave waiting for emergency sirens to stop, waiting out some alien cataclysm with that thumping kick and those noise hits/SFX. If you like this song, u-Ziq's "Hasty Boom Alert" is a wonderful iteration of this sound -- very similar but with some faster, more frenetic jungle-adjacent drum sampling.

All the words I know and using them to attempt to describe the feelings of this album are like having a wardrobe of clothes that dont fit right. In it's best moments, I am sent to places in my mind that dont exist in real life. Places that are liminal, empyrean, unearthly, beautiful, and perfect. I haven't even touched on how I think this album created a subculture of gen Z's eventual fascination with "liminal spaces". And I WON'T mention the stupid genre moniker "IDM" for this review, even though it did kinda birth the genre. I understand if Selected Ambient Works isnt for you - there was a time where I didnt understand the appeal of Aphex Twin at all! I wanted music that hit me in the face and matched my energy. But if you can be patient and spacious, and meet this album in the mysterious places it takes you, then you'll be rewarded with a sonic journey to places that go beyond description

I read the description for this album which gave me such a sense of hope for my listening experience. That was a mistake, I should know by now that it is often the album I don’t expect anything of which end up surprising me the most. There were a pleasant few times where Foxbase Alpha lived up to the hopes I had for it, but what came between those moments left me wanting more.

There’s also an interesting dichotomy going on with this project. Is it impressive and well-produced for its time? Yes. Did I find it largely toothless and safe? Also yes.

The opening tracks sampling technique had me hoping for some four-on-the-floor beats and colorful loops to come, but it wasn’t until “Spring” that I really settled into enjoying this album for what it is.
Then it once again took me a while to be pleased with anything I was hearing.
“Like The Swallow” toward the end of the track listing is by far the best song on here, it actually commits itself to a unique song idea that takes its proper time to develop. Some much needed variety!

I’m a bit sad this one didn’t pack as much punch as I’d hoped for. It’s not bad, but it’s not crazy. It’s the opposite of crazy.
Not my cup of tea for electronic music, although it checks off some of those boxes to get close

I was soooo excited, so happy, so hopeful that this record could finish the tightrope walk that it set out on. The first few songs were unique and defied a lot of the 60’s rock tropes of the time. Thoughtful lyrics about how one death leads to another life, etc. I was particularly a fan of “Orange Skies” for how simple and happy it was - the flute was a nice touch.

But it all had to come crashing down eventually. “Revelation” closes the album in such a needless manner. No, this isn’t a noteworthy opus just because it’s over ten minutes and features a bunch of instrumental solos. It’s a bit boring, the looped melody it lulls into is a bit derivative. Who felt the need to do this? I’m having a hard time getting the hype for this record.

I feel like a 3/5 stars is always a cop out for anything this old. But Ive said this before and I’ll say it again - it’s hard to judge records like these and feel like I have anything meaningful to contribute. So I try to treat these as opportunities to be thankful for how much variety is at my fingertips - I listened to some very cool 90’s dub techno right after this.

The best song on here, to my ears, is “Beautiful Brown Eyes”. It felt the most complete and varied from start to finish. 3/5.

All rappers should hope to have a tenth of the personality that ATCQ inject into each song on this album. All rappers should also be hopeless when they hear how easily the bars are delivered on this album. "Luck Of Lucien" was such a fun, linear story that was so easy to go along the ride for. It is in this track that I can practically hear MF DOOM taking notes - he strikes me as one of the few rappers to ever honorably iterate on the blueprint that ATCQ laid down here.

My song of the record is probably "Rhythym (Devoted To The Art of Moving Butts)" for that beautiful, futuristic beat under some fun rhyme schemes.