Reviews by korb

Ok, first off... The bassist, John Taylor, plays the hell out of every track on this album. I never realized how much funk he brings to the group. I think his performances on this album are a subtle, but significant factor in just how catchy Rio is. In fact, kudos to the John and Roger for putting together a great rhythm section, to counterbalance the otherwise light synth and guitar parts. The other person whose contribution can hardly be overstated is Simon Le Bon, who is singing his heart on every track.

I'd point to "Last Chance On The Stairway" as being the standout overall performance on the album, although there are admittedly much greater pop songs there. For my tastes though, I've got to cast my 'best track' vote for "The Chauffeur". It's got a peculiar allure that is unsettling enough to sound novel and really lingers in your memory.

But honestly, it's all great. Every last track on the album is good (at a minimum) and most are extraordinary. It's definitely an album that everyone should hear at least once.

I have always enjoyed the jungle EDM subgenre. It's blend of drum-n-bass, trance and house plays right around the edges of something you can dance to and something you can chill to. Unfortunately, as time has gone on the monotony of the compositions have stood out more and more to the point where I think I'm almost over it.

While this album had similar moments (i.e. I definitely didn't need to hear the same dolphin chirps looped for 9 minutes on 'Sea of Tears'), it also did well to keep tracks varied enough to keep songs from feeling too stuck in a rut. I could see digging this album back out for workday focus, or for playing in the background.

What started out as charming and novel, grated on my nerves by the end. Apparently, I can only handle so much piccolo, fiddle and slurred folk tales.

Do I really have to write another review on what I think about Neil Young's music?

When I loaded up the 1001 page for the day, I had to do a double take to make sure I wasn't seeing things. It's Deee-Lite! This is an album that my family and I used to jam to together and it's always been a guilty pleasure of mine to go back to from time to time.

I was just about to give up when 'H2O Gate' came on and I realized I had heard this artist before and that I liked his other spoken word pieces (namely 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'). His spoken tracks have popped up on the radio from time to time, but I never heard them attributed to an artist's name. I'm glad to now have a name and to be able to make the connection back to LCD Soundsystem's 'Losing My Edge' track.

But, back to 'H2O Gate'... I didn't really enjoy the majority of this album.
While the tracks did have a nice chill vibe and the keyboardist (I'm assuming Gil) has got some great chops, the flow and tonality and lyrical content all felt off. 'H2O Gate', on the other hand, felt perfect. It cleverly and deftly pulled me into focus and then set my mind sprinting to keep up. The message was urgent, eloquent, thought provoking and enduring. The pacing was exciting, and I am sure that I only scratched the surface of understanding all that was said.

I will need to revisit this album somewhere down the road and see if it lands differently with me then. For now though, outside of one brilliant track, I just couldn't connect with what was happening enough to enjoy it much.

It's really extraordinary how this trio managed to make such a huge sound for themselves with Moving Pictures. The ability and precisions that each of these artists brings to their performances is on another level of greatness, most notably on the tracks 'YYZ' and 'The Camera Eye'.

And yet the album still feels totally accessible and easy to connect with, which is quite the achievement for a prog-rock album.

Any album that can get tens of thousands of Pacific Northwestern Washingtonians to dance en masse with complete abandon, then there is something special happening.

While other countries and many major US cities were already rave crazed, the greater Puget Sound was still clueless about EDM. I remember hearing these guys for the first time on the radio station KNDD (aka \"107.7 the End\"), which was the mainstream \"alternative\" radio station, squeezed in between the otherwise endless sets of grunge rock. I was hooked. And so was the region.

Nearly overnight, clubs started appearing (all I could go to DV8 since I wasn't 21 yet) and more and more EDM shows started touring into town. Pretty soon, festivals and raves were popping up everywhere, house parties were blasting \"electronica\" and people could not stop dancing!

It was a really good time, and this album takes me right back to it.

I don't think it should have been completely panned when it came out in the 70s, but I can't really see how the whole album is hailed as a lost masterpiece either. The title track 'No Other' is definitely great, and the album on the whole has the hallmarks of a well-executed labor of love. Overall, I got tired with the album by the track 'From a Silver Phial' and found my attention span trailing off over the remaining 3 tracks.

There are far too few non-western artists on this list, so I was already feeling good about this album, just to see it here. But this is absolutely not just a token of diversity meant to appease. Rather, this is a testament to the universal language of music, which I hope will open the eyes and ears of listeners touring this list.

I personally enjoyed the vibrant vocals and horns, the hypnotic drum chorus, and the iterative verse-over-verse permutations of the opening track 'Immigres/Bitim Rew' and the closing track 'Badou'. The central two tracks are much more mellow, but similarly rich in their musical texture.

This is a wonderful introduction to the music of Senegal and I look forward to exploring the artists and albums of that country and region further; with or without this list's recommendations.

This album is a beautiful melting pot of musical influences, merging together the rhythms and dance inducing energy of latin music, with the expressiveness guitar of classic rock, the cleverness and organic flow of jazz, and the fuzzy blur of psychedelic. Beyond the classics that this album has become known for, 'Incident at Neshabur' and 'Mother's Daughter' are perfect examples of how all of these genres come together into perfect harmony together.

It doesn't get much closer to the roots of rap than this album. This crew was taking all of the tools of the trade (i.e. scratching, sampling, synthesizers, drum machines, a live DJ doing the mix, and multiple emcees) and putting it to full effect. All of this is something we take for granted at this point, but these guys were quite literally figuring it all out as they went.

What really sets Run-D.M.C apart from rappers of that time and since is their collaborative style, of passing the lines back and forth, and chorusing each other. The coordination and memorization involved to do this without breaking the flow is truly mind-boggling to me.

Classics from start to finish. Just enough rock'n'roll grit to be relatable and just enough new-wave polish and studio production to feel crisp and novel.

The album is rock at its core but it sure can't help from bursting into musical theatre grandeur along the way. Each track has a boisterous pop affect that contrasts against the ghoulish nature of the performances and the scandalous nature of the lyrics.

And speaking of the lyrical content, now I know why Alice Cooper's work was coined as shock rock. The lyrics blast right through taboos such as sexual assault ("Raped and Freezin'"), blow-up dolls ("Billion Dollar Babies"), and necrophilia ("I Love the Dead"), like they're just small talk. I can see the roots of groups like Gwar in these songs, for sure.

This album is a masterpiece, unifying elements of R&B, hip-hop, rap, and soul/gospel masterfully. The opening pairing of 'Lost Ones' and 'Ex-Factor' are stripped down tracks that put Lauryn's rap bone fides and vocal power front and center, setting the tone for the whole album to come. Ms. Hill's performance on each track is impeccable, even the chorus parts that she recorded for the background hypes and harmony.

The lyrical content of this album is clearly very personal and speaks to experience that everyone can connect with at a similar level. It must have been hard to put all of that honesty and emotion into this work, have it become a worldwide success, and then compelled to tour the world singing it over and over again. I can't imagine how artists doing it and maintain authenticity and their own connection to the work.

And ultimately, that is what makes this a bittersweet album for me too. Ultimately, something went awry for Ms. Lauryn Hill, and she has suffered for it. It highlights the parasitic aspect of fandom in an uncomfortable way. Artists are who they are, and their work is what it is, and we need to be careful to not lose sight of them as people, especially when things get difficult.

A succinct and unoffensive rock'n'roll album with plenty of earworm tracks that have now become foundations and pillars for countless artists to follow.

Nearly every song adheres to a strict verse-chorus-verse structure, with the sole exception of 'Luna', which musters up the courage to diverge to a verse-chorus-bridge routine - scandal! Jokes aside though, I really enjoyed that track for all of the diversity it brought, relative to the rest of the rather formulaic album.

Those nit-picks as they are though, the whole album is fast enough and enjoyable enough to not really get caught up by any of them. The impression that endures is of a bright and tight production with just enough soul and energy to get your butt wiggling in your chair.

An iconic cornerstone of the psychedelic musical genre. I'm rating this a bit lower than what I suspect the norm is, only because I'm not a big fan of the group, but that is mostly just a matter of personal taste.

I'm hard pressed to think of a more perfect hip-hop album. The flows and wordplays are sublime. The subject matter of the tracks covers a range of substantial topics with a perfect balance of seriousness and humor. The backing tracks are a genius fusion of jazz, break loops and samples and an art form unto themselves, which have influenced countless artists and genres since.

An absolute gem!

I guess if I'm evaluating an album on the technical marvel of its production and the elaborate nature of the performances, then I would be lauding the genius of this album.

If I am being honest though, it's just feels too full of itself to be enjoyable.

Geez - I totally forgot how tiresome R&B tracks had become by the late 90s. Slow jam after slow jam with synthesized everything accompanied by little more than a fretless bass guitar. FKA Twigs this is not!

While still largely constrained to the formula above, I would point to the track 'Breakdown' as a pleasant break out (at least in meter) from the well-worn guardrails that the rest of the album feels tied down by.

Above the tracks Mariah's vocals are flawless and float back and forth between smokey seduction and belting power. I'd point to 'My All' and 'Close My Eyes' as being the stars of the album in particular.