Reviews by john

“Kicks” is a great starter, “There’s Always Tomorrow” is a fantastic track with a little Doors in its sound (and a wildly fun guitar section towards the end), but “Little Girl In The 4th Row” is dreadful. I think the slow, deliberate annunciation of the lyrics crushes all room for doubt as to what that one’s about.

A back half treat was “Melody For An Unknown Girl” breaking up the sickening monotony of another mid-60’s rock record.

“SS 396”. Surely this is a Beach Boys ripoff intentionally.

2/5. Much potential, even more inconsistency

On the surface level, it's very enjoyable. How is this that much different or in any way better than Yoshimi though? It's hard to listen to this without feeling like it's a bit wasted due to the shadow of that Yoshimi.

"A Spoonful Weighs A Ton" is super sweet. Love that loungy bossa drum machine pattern which follows that FAT synth a little over a minute in.

Very hard to drum up more original thoughts or strong feelings about this one. It's neat but safe, a blueprint for better projects to come from The Flaming Lips

Pharrell. That guy knows how to make some pop music. This album though? Full of too much of what every rock/pop fusion record in the mid 2000's was full of - clunk. Electric guitars just clunking along. Drumming that gets a a failing grade.

Pharrell is a great frontman though. Songs 2 & 3 have great little pictures painted. Lots of representing what it feels like to be a displaced kid growing up. "Drill Sergeant" is a particularly fascinating version of Pharrell speaking in his coming of age voice, just specifically about the war in Iraq.

Fly Or Die is technically rock/pop/fusion, but it has a backpack rap spirit. The ideas are aplenty, but the execution is rarely there. Firm 2/5

“We Will Fall”. That’s the song. You don’t have to skip everything else but you HAVE to listen to that song. In the midst of this forward-thinking debut, that song stands alone. I can’t really describe it, you just gotta experience it.

A lot of the other material is very good on here too. I can visualize the proto-punk and American punk albums of the 70’s looking back at this record and giving thanks. The Stooges were pushing through brick walls with crushing, heavy guitars, lustful lyrics with scuzzy deliveries.

“No Fun” is an homage to the rock of the past, naturally lifting a lot of black American rock influences of the 50’s and 60’s. “Ann” is also noteworthy, those guitars are fuzzed-out and chunky as can be.

I’m gonna hit this with a light 4/5. Not one that I’m gonna go back to for constant enjoyment, but The Stooges is (quite literally) an electric debut

She achieves the incredibly difficult Purple Rain effect in which an artist completely out-writes and out-performs the dated 80’s sounds of the time. Dare I say she recognizes what’s great about something like a drum machine snare and actively uses it to her advantage. More than anything though, Tina Turner’s voice is the engine powering this whole record.

There is not a single bad cover on this record either! She commits on the vocal booth on every song, but especially on the covers here. I’m her age comes a clear reverence for the hits she covers, and a knowledge on how to do them justice. The “Let’s Stay Together” cover is unreal. Heavenly pads, soaring vocals, so much syncopated instrumentation bringing color and texture into the picture.

“Steel Claw” digs its feet firmly into 80’s arena anthem rock/pop, and she somehow makes that work just as well. This is a Meatloaf song if ever Ive heard one, but I don’t mind it at all. Another earnest deliver from Turner makes it a really fun listen. The following cover of “Help” assured that Meatloaf philosophy — if you sell out hard enough with your performances and the belief in your theatrics, concepts like camp and cheesy musical theater tropes cease to exist.

“1984” might be where the album dips in excellence a bit. I’m unsure if it’s actually a dip in quality or everything just becomes a bit predictable. Any one of these last few tracks could be a fine single, but some variation of them has already been heard on the front half of the record.

Moments short of a true 5/5. Powerhouse vocals and fun instrumentals

Bob Dylan the DJ set. That’s what the first side sounds like. Each acoustic song just kinda rolls into the next, and if you’re into the format and sound, it’s a pleasant experience. The second side is much more harsh and prototypical electric late 60’s rock. I didn’t like that one as much.

I get that Bobby is one of the greatest songwriters of our time, but the guy in the crowd that calls him ‘Judas’ is a bit intensive. Artists switch genres and sounds all the time, why was he so bitter about Bobby doing the same?

Front side is a 4/5, back side is a 2/5, let’s meet in the middle

It’s not that this material is too challenging, it’s that it’s too boring and wayyyy too non-consequential — both in its substance and in its greater place (or lack thereof) in a “you need to listen to this album” zeitgeist. You do not need to listen to this album at all, and I am now stuck between giving this thing a respectful 2/5 on the principle of how unique-sounding it is, and booming it to the moon with a 1/5 for being such an odd, dull, unimportant pick to add to this list.
The last song was really redeeming. Softer and much more fun than the rest of the album.

2/5 the horrors persist but so do I

A fine but completely hollow listen. The instrumentals are offensively inoffensive, the singing oscillates between passable and bad. It all comes together as something I’ll likely forget in a week. Not mellow enough to have me relaxed, not lively enough to make a splash.

My pick from this album is “The Distance From Her to There”, mostly because it reminded me of one of the many tropes that Mr Bungle album, California, pulls from. You should listen to that record instead of this Nixon one. It’s infinitely more fascinating and challenging.

2/5

Perhaps I am a victim of my own taste and musical upbringing, with the late 80’s being a blind spot for me, but the pop sounds of this era are the opposite of evergreen. It doesn’t help that Cohen takes no artistic liberty whatsoever with the instrumentals and synths. His voice and artistic aesthetics do NOT belong on a backing track that could be mistaken for an “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” karaoke backing track.

The lyrics on “Ain’t No Cure For Love” are rigid enough when read, but an over 50 Leonard Cohen singing them adds insult to injury.

I believe Cohen’s reputation precedes the substance of this album, and is perhaps somehow the reason folks have excused this wet blanket’s existence. I don’t find the lyrics to be passable or worth excusing the bleepy-bloopy, twee, shrill electronic backing tracks. If there’s an edge to these lyrics or a cunning to his deliveries, it’s totally lost on me.

Leonard Cohen has some classics, and then there’s this dusty dump. “Take This Waltz” is the only fully-fleshed-out song on this record, and I think we can all find better baroque-inspired songs from long before 1988. I also really respect the idea of “Tower Of Song”, but it sounds like a donkey Kong country track and it’s just so off-putting.

Swap the instrumentals out for something completely different please. 1/5

I'll keep it a stack I've LOVED some of the Sonic Youth albums this list has put forth (nevermind overabundance of SY albums on this list) but I actually didn't love this one as much as many people do. I hear the fantastic execution and super tight instrumentation. I don't argue with how much quality alt rock is here. I don't know, this just wasn't as sticky for me.

After amazing first song, I just fell into a fugue state all the way until the "Providence" interlude. Dare I say that with the passing of time, I've heard lots of bands copy this sound or iterate on it in more engaging ways.

"Kissability" was my favorite track. Obligatory Kim Gordon should be the only one handling lead vocals 3/5

Not nearly as flat as I thought it would be. Not an amazing work of art, but not at all dull or predictable.

"Love Has Found A Way" into "Why Can't I Be Free" was a dynamic display of this band's willingness to just commit to one sound or idea for a song, then swap it right up for another. Then the folliwing "Mr. Skin" has some Zappa vibes going for it. THEN "Space Child" sounds like golden era Pink Floyd a few years ahead of the curve.

One of the more tolerable classic psych rock records with some foresight for what you could do to pull at the edges of certain guitar music tropes of the time. 3/5

Continuing to read about these guys, they seemed to be quite ahead of the curve for lots of sounds, or at the very least surrounded themselves with tastemaking folks and artists who eventually would draw inspiration from Spirit. It adds an additional level of respect I hold for this record

They do about as well as a band could do operating under the influences of psych rock in the early 80’s. The lyrics are (at times) even more lucid than their 60’s predecessors, and some of their contemporary touch-ups to the sound were much needed.

But, in the end, they’re still smacking their heads against the relatively low ceiling of psychedelic rock. It’s such a limiting, tired set of guard rails to impose on one’s sound - especially in the context of this list. I’d be lying to you if I were to give this more than a 2/5, even if it’s an interesting addendum to it’s own genre.

Favorites were “I Got The Hots” and “Insanely Jealous” back to back for both being pretty clever

Moments of brilliance stuck between some more meddling, nonsensical noodling.

“Jennifer” sounded very Eno-esque, something Im coming to say more and more as this list comes to an end.

“Giggy Smile” was a super fun track, galavanting from catchy phrases to crazy instrumental passages for minutes on end.

Lastly, that “Lauft…Heisst” track had a synth at the end that sounded oddly like a deadmau5 song. Strange.

It’s a low 3/5 for some bright moments I’ll remember

They cover a lot of ground for being a post-punk band. Some of it's just scraping by, most of it is really impressive. Much of it deals in teenage disposition. I could see this HITTING if you were coming of age when it was released.

First off, "Androgynous" is so pure and ahead of it's time. The song is sung in a way that's so plain and clear-eyed, which is something lacking about non-binary representation in media to this day. I've saved this song for many more listens down the road.

I thought the opening "I Will Dare" had me sat down for another forgettable mid-80's run-of-the-mill british rock album, but things often got much more gritty in the songs to come. Por ejemplo, "We're Comin Out" is performed to sound like they were trying to blow the hinges off the recording booth door. With a very swanky bridge too. "Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out" has the same punk aesthetic too, but this one's got more story and character to it.

I can see how "Unsatisfied" gained popularity, the chorus is much more anthemic than most songs on here, and a sign of bands to come (sounds a bit like a Guns n Roses cut).

Needed a second listen for this one. I further appreciated the melding of punk energy with their sensibility for a good hook. Even at their most hookish, there's something grounded about Let It Be. Maybe a lot of that has to do with how incredible "Androgynous" is, especially for 1984.

It’s a firm 4/5

More of an album that should be preserved as a footnote to all the black Americans it’s covering than an album to be listened to and reverted for its musical content.

“I’m A King Bee” was the most fun of the bunch imo, but the returns are diminishing as each song passes by. When “Tell Me” finished, I was tapped out. Mercifully, this album ends in 33 total minutes.

2/5 outside of a few emphatic performances, this is not worth

Pros:
- songs like “High And Dry” are a reminder of the decade and dated sounds in which this album came from and ultimately surpassed
- this album is good context for how big of a leap their next album Ok Computer really was
- nothing on here is bad (some might even call it tasteful)
- elite album cover

Cons:
- the discourse and dialogue hyping up radiohead makes it hard to match such a heightened level of enthusiasm for a record thats so downtrodden and grey in nature
- this music does not at all line up with the way I process sad or negative emotions

3/5 I’m more of an in rainbows guy myself

It’s hard to pin this down to one rock subgenre, there’s a lot going on here, but one of the thing that pops out to me is how this sound is a total precursor to grunge. And WOW this album sounds incredible. The guitar tones are so beautiful. “Slugefeast” is an all-encompassing colorful, gritty wall of guitars. There’s no way I’m not listening to a remastered version, but according to Spotify at least, it’s the original master.

Though theyre from Massachusetts, “The Lung” has a bit of a Midwest flare to it.

“Tarpit” wields this stretched, melancholy, hefty sense of weight. Guitars that distort to sound like tornadoes at the last minute, vocals that hang onto the backing track by a thread. A very humane mixture of emotions all spilled out and painted into one song.

Right as the album started to get samey, “Poledo” came on. I was stunned. I don’t know if I’ve ever heard of a song so gritty and tender all at once. The phases this song flips through, all while managing to maintain a very specific sound, are astounding. I’m at a loss for words. For Dinasour Jr. to go from that gothic depth charge of a song into a whistful, lovey jam session on the two minutes of “Just Like Heaven”, ONLY for it to be interrupted by those screaming “NO!” chants, just then for the song to abruptly end — amazing.

I think I’m gonna give this album a very high 4/5. There are ways in which it is indeed a true 5. It’s so ahead of its time, it’s a very pure expression of difficult emotions, it’s got some of the best guitar tones I’ve ever heard. It might be missing a sticky melody or two for my tastes, and the start of the second half of the record lulls a bit. But those are truly the only nitpicks I can drum up. I had a great time discovering this album and band

The Smiths comp is mostly justified. Maybe I’m thinking too comparatively, but I also hear a little Waterboys in there. Unless you’re song 2 on here, “Quiet Heart”. Then you’d be a blatant attempt to copy the recent success of U2’s “With Or Without You”. Or unless you’re song 6 on here, “Streets Of Your Town”. Then you’d be a sound that was already perfected by Prefab Sprout on the front half of their Steve McQueen record.

I know this is a well-written Aus cult classic, but its packaging doesn’t stand out at all. The sonic direction (or lack thereof) is so bland and predictable. 2/5

I was a huge fan of Apple Venus, but this one didn’t feel as impactful. Apple Venus felt both innovative and cunning, this record feels a bit more twee and a few stepping stones away. Mostly just a product of time, AV was released a dozen years after Skylarking.

This felt a little more like typical new wave and art rock merged their mediocre bits to get a mediocre result. “Ballet For A Rainy Day” sounded like They Might Be Giants snuck back in time a bit to speak through XTC. Speaking of which, it makes sense that “Dear God” was a college radio success, this whole album has a college radio sound.

2/5 unnecessary

Such a timeless, giant anthem to open the album on. The rest of the record treads water.

Don McLean is a solid story teller, he can’t be knocked for songwriting skill. It’s just that a lot of these songs feel like the singular acoustic ballad from an album that should otherwise be much more rowdy or dynamic. Every song feels like you have to gather round the fire and wait patiently again, to varying degrees of success.

I really enjoyed “The Grave” the most outside of the obvious choice for a favorite song from this record. 3/5