Reviews by korb

What an entirely unique confluence of musical and production elements. I can't say I'll be coming back to this album over and over again, but it was fun to be introduced to.

Its enchanting, mesmerizing and yet cognitively exhausting to listen to, somewhat akin to the sirens' call from The Odyssey.

I can't even begin to comprehend the complexity of the performance and the skill required to pull it off with this much elegance and emotion, let alone the genius and intimate musical intuition required to absolutely nail it in a single take.

I will need to come back to this album many more times before I can fully appreciate it, and I'll be glad to do it.

I remember the first time I ever heard Neil Young was when he showed up at the 1993 MTV Music Awards to perform "Keep on Rockin' In The Free World' with Pearl Jam. My poor little teenage fanboy mind was confused, because one of my favorite bands had sidelined their lead vocalist in favor of some dude I'd only vaguely heard of. I could have recovered from that but to add insult to injury, in and amongst some very awkward movements and fits across the stage, this Neil Young dude was struggling to carry the tune at all.

I'm sure that has flavored my perception of Neil Young's work to this day, but I just can't distance myself enough from his voice to even kind of engage in the music or the lyrics at all.

This album followed along those similar lines. When the whimpering trio of vocalists started to carry in the first 30 seconds of the first track (Tonight's the Night) I thought, "Welp, here we go again!". By the time I got to nearly breathless screech of "Railroad traaaaaaaaack" around the 2:15 mark in 'Mellow My Mind', I gave up.

I'm glad that so many other folks get so much out of this artist's work, but it just isn't for me.

This album was already in my heavy rotation list, but I'd never really taken the time to think about the end-to-end album (and the event itself) all that much. It's really quite remarkable that a well-established artist from any musical genre would opt to setup inside of a prison and perform a whole show for the prisoners. I very seriously doubt there is any modern musician with an established career and the courage to do the same (especially any country musician). I could be wrong, but I doubt I am.

So, then the show gets started, and instead of rolling off a series of radio-worn popular tunes, the band plays a setlist of songs that tell the tales of criminals. Each song honestly, and often sympathetically, portrays the personhood and humanity of the criminal, without romanticizing or pitying. And in an amongst all of it, Johnny is chatting up the crowd and making jokes just like it's nothing.

It's an enjoyable and voyeuristic musical experience, with a very subtle underlying tragedy that, when explored enough, challenges the listener to think of the humanity of the people that have been locked away from society.

Everything is there to make a great album, but yet I still can't manage to get to the point of connecting with the tracks and immersing in the album.

As I was listening through this album, I developed a boatload of flawed assumptions about how this album (a country album by a soul singer) came to be. I figured that a bunch of studio bigwigs forced Ray into this path in order to line their pockets. Reading through the Wikipedia article for this album though, I found out I was dead wrong, and my appreciation for what this album is has appreciated all the more for it. The truth is that Ray was the mastermind behind this cross-over and through this work the popularity of country music on the whole was significantly improved. An enjoyable twist on many levels.

The music and the performances are fantastic, and Ray brings his characteristic charisma and soulful touch to each track. Perhaps 24 tracks does feel a touch long, but it can be forgiven.

An extremely precise punk backing band fronted by explosive, raw and untamed vocals. It makes for a solid album that I'm sure was influential to countless artists over the years. This sounds like a group that would've been really fun to see live. I appreciate the break from the norm that the track 'Plastic Bag' provided, and it makes me curious for what could've been if they explored outside of their punk structure a bit more.

The play counts on spotify tell the story clearly enough. The album is like a wild trip, equal parts euphoric and terrifying, and definitely not for everyone.

The first four tracks of this album are a collection of meandering jam sessions, that bring together rock instrumentation with a touch of funk and an overall psychedelic air. It's a great set of tracks to have playing in the background or bopping in your headphones while you're focusing. I especially enjoy how the track 'Halleluhwah' ebbs and flows through it's permutations, the rhythm section holding to a core while the rest of the band dances all around it.

And then you come to tracks 5 and 6, and the wheels just fall off... for 29 minutes! I can't really understand why anyone would bother to commit these sorts of noise jams to a recording, and in the case of this album it really spoils what was a fantastic start.

The album sort of crawls back to where it started, with 'Bring Me Coffee or Tea', but I suspect that most listeners don't know that because they threw in the towel somewhere in the middle of 'Peking O'.

To me, the Pixies fall into a similar category of esoteric or contentious brilliance and I think 'Bossanova' is perfectly curated collection of songs that illustrate what I mean. Each track is captivating in its own way, but it's hard to tell whether you're still listening because of the harmony or the dissonance. The band manages to flirt right at the boundaries of both ends of that spectrum simultaneously, turning it into more of a closed loop than a continuum.

Overall, the album is built on the foundation of an electrified and blurred out beach-rock sound. The moods of the album are varied, ranging from mellow (i.e. 'Havalina') to manic (i.e. 'Rock Music') and many unsettled points in between (i.e. 'Is She Weird'), 'Hang Wire'). The vocals are all over the place and seem to be deliberately imperfect, and there is a quirk there that makes it all work.

And I think that's the thing about the Pixies. They are easy to dismiss or dislike on the surface. I've personally resisted getting into their music and really understanding its appeal. You have to spend time with it and grow a personal connection. That's not what everyone is looking for when it comes to music, certainly not of this genre, but it's there if you've got time to give.

I get the impression that this album was an important milestone in the glacial evolution of the culture of the music industry. Regardless of how accurate that assumption is, I am sure that this had a positive effect on the "If you can see it, you can be it" scales over the years since this album's release.

The album makes me think of laidback summer weekend afternoons. I appreciate the craftsmanship that they put into the harmonies and it's remarkable how they come across as one voice.

All that said though, it's not really my cup of tea and I doubt I'll be revisiting the album for my personal enjoyment.

They had a vision for what they wanted, and they went for it; I'll give them that. When I think synth-pop, I definitely don't think about socially conscious bands that are looking to make commentaries with their music.

The lyrical content makes the focus of this album plain, but the conspicuously artificial sound of the synthesized drum tracks and keyboards add an additional dystopian and ominous air to most of the tracks.

The result is an album that isn't necessarily entertaining, or rather that feels less casual and more forceful with it's desire to be heard. I appreciate a group that is willing to do that, but I also have to admit that in this case, it kind of undermines my ability to enjoy it too much.

The albums plays like an out of focus image rough cut into a puzzle of poorly fitting pieces. There is something there, you're sure of it, but it's hard to make out and you can't tell whether the focus required to put it together is worth it or not.

Generally speaking, this sort of low-fi rock/punk/psychedelic thing would be right up my alley, so I'm a bit surprised to find that I can't quite settle into enjoying the album too much. I will probably come to appreciate what this album is, or the place it had in the context of musical history, but for the time being, it's just a bit too scattershot for me.

It is quite an intriguing union of styles and sounds. The album has the heart of a rock album, which stands out on tracks like 'Listen', 'South California Purples' and 'Liberation', but there is a depth and a soulfulness there (i.e. 'Poem 58'), as well as an occasional pop-anthem vibe to some of the songs (i.e. 'Beginnings'), that make it feel a bit like a musical square peg.

All told, the album is an enjoyable debut from a group of people that seem like they are really enjoying making music together, regardless of what genre people want to try and pack them into. Who would have thought at the time that these dudes would still be rocking and touring together half a century later!

Tear the roof off this motherfunker!

I appreciate the lyricism and storytelling and there isn't anything particularly off putting about the songs. Don's voice is crystal clear, and the tunes are catchy.

But it's all sort of eye-glossingly boring to me. I say that, then I feel like I'm an ingrate who is overlooking gorgeous nuance of the music, and I'm haunted by visions of my furrowed browed Dad shaking his head as he says, "Pearls before swine."

As far as Cash's albums go, it's not nearly as great for the music, as it is for chaotic fun of the performance itself. The whole show is resplendently defiant and yet Johnny remains endearingly charismatic to everyone involved. What I appreciate very specifically is how Johnny shows deference for the humanity of the inmates, especially in the stage banter between the songs.

It took me a while to place it, but the things I like about this album are very similar to what I liked about 'A Nod Is as Good as a Wink... to a Blind Horse' by Faces, which is also on this list.

Every track is exuberant, and each part is played to perfection with a casual blue-rock affect. Chris Robinson in particular sounds like he's put everything he has into every single track, and that energy is infectious.

Such a tragic loss of a profoundly talented musician.

Let me start this off by saying that the 'Blame Game' backing track is a straight ripoff from Aphex Twin's 'Avril 14th'. Aphex deserves all of the recognition he can get, so shame on Kanye for not doing right by him.

There is a lot to enjoy about this album, and I agree that it is the pinnacle of Kanye's career. There are some great rhymes and techniques at play, Kayne's production skills are on full display, and the collaborations are fantastic (especially Nicki Minaj and JAY-Z on 'Monster').

There are also stark contrasts between and even within tracks that seem to mirror Kanye's continuously tortured state. You've got a track like 'POWER' throwing bravado every direction it can but then culminating in contemplations of suicide. You've also got loads of lines about how they're "f'in B's" and then a seemingly apologetic track like 'Runaway'.

It's been sad to see the steady decline of Kayne (at least in the public eye) and this album seems to do a decent job of encapsulating the conflicts that were at play within the man at the time. It is simultaneously resplendent, self-congratulating, chaotic and introspective.

I still struggle to separate the artist from the art, so I'm sure that is pulling my rating down here, but the album was much better that I figured it would be, and certainly far superior to anything that Kayne has made since.