Reviews by korb

If this guy hadn't previously been a part of Pink Floyd, there is no way this album would have been made. I can appreciate a touched mind's deranged performances (RIP Wesley Willis), but this is just nonsense.

This is a great album that brings together numerous elements of popular genres and makes something entirely unique and special, from parts and pieces of things we've all heard before. Topping it all off is Debby Harry, a powerful and charismatic front woman, which even 40+ years later are still far too few and far between due primarily to the endemically flawed nature of both the music industry and how popularity works in our society.

And yet, fortunately for all of us, all of these unlikely pieces fell into place.

This album has a couple of new wave classics in "One Way Or Another" and "Heart Of Glass". I also enjoyed the tracks that veered from the formula of those hit tracks, specifically the darker vibe on the track "Fade Away And Radiate" and the ensemble rock sound of "I Know But I Don't Know".

I don't know what the thing is called when singers kinda twist, roll and truncate the words at the end of their lyrical phrases - but I can't stand it!

"I do my makeup in, somebody else's cahw
We order different drinks at the same bahws
etc..."

It's this sort of exaggerated baby talk that you see all over tik tok videos. It took me a while to get past that "technique" enough to consider what I really thought about the album.

Contrary to what the pop-forward veneer might suggest, the lyrical content tackles some pretty series subject matter. The songs look past the buzz to the hangover, and past the honeymoon to when the infatuation has worn off. I appreciate that a musician that is getting hundreds of millions of plays on Spotify is willing to go there. Hopefully people who hear these lyrics and they create some awareness and emotional space for those whom their own introspections are missing or repressed.

As for the music, it's alright, but not really great (for my tastes anyhow). Nothing about it really gives me goose bumps or intrigues me all that much. It a generally subdue backtrack that stays mostly hidden below and beneath Lorde's performance.

A bit of blues, a bit of roots rock, a bit of soul, and maybe even a bit of country. All of it is touched with the dust of a road worn band, and the fuzz of distortion and reverb. I really enjoy the overall sound of the album.

It's a mostly subdue and introspective album that maintains the lyrical poignance that you would expect from Dylan. Standing way out from the crowd on this album is the track 'Make you Feel My Love'. It's a gem of a love song that I'm surprised I've never heard come across before (either original or covered). Whoa is me, and my musically sheltered life.

A British prog-rock super group's adaptation of a late 19th century classical suite... this could really only go one of two ways.

I enjoyed this album more than I anticipated I would. The calm chill of 'The Sage' and the raging ramble of the BabaYaga series of tracks culminating into 'The Great Gates of Kiev' were the real standouts for me.

I didn't realize that DJ Shadow sampled from this album. Now I gotta go back and listen to some of his earlier stuff! I digress.

These guys had an uncanny creative sensibility because this album is back-to-back earworms. The album doesn't seem to follow any particular theme as it bounces between subdue (i.e. 'Bridge Over Troubled Water', 'So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright', and 'The Boxer') or bubbly and bright (i.e. 'Cecilia', 'Keep the Customer Satisfied', and 'Baby Driver') tracks, but they ultimately blend together nicely into a well rounded collection.

It's a solid album from start to finish that has endured for 50 years, and I'm sure it will hold it's beloved status for another 50, and then some.

As much as I want to complain about these songs being "played out" on the radio or complain about my perceptions of Billy Corgan steadily degrading over time ... I just don't care, because this album is way too good. I also openly acknowledge my fondness for this album is likely unduly swayed by nostalgia.

What really drew me into this album, and still endears me to it today, is that it is founded in the grunge/alt musical sensibility, but it goes way beyond the simplistic structures of that genre. The songs are full of contours. They have intros, transitions, swings in guitar effects, phrases that build and climb, pauses of calm punctuated with eruptions of fuzz blaring guitars. I think the tracks 'Soma', 'Mayonaise', and 'Silverfuck' demonstrates what I'm talking about perfectly.

Some of the greatest tracks/moments on this album, that come to my mind are, the first 57 seconds of 'Cherub Rock', 'Hummer', 'Rocket', 'Soma', 'Silverf*ck', and 'Rhinoceros' - oops, wrong album.

I can't figure out what, but something prevents me from connecting with this album. To be fair, it is full of good music, energetic performances, and emotional storytelling. Normally that would be the perfect mixture for me.

For some reason though, it just feels a bit too "put on" or stuck somewhere in the uncanny valley, just shy of the qualities that would resonate with my senses. I guess I would point to 'Indian Sunset' as an example of what I'm talking about. I should be into it, but it just feels a bit awkward.

Looking beyond the well-known tracks like 'Tiny Dancer', I personally think 'Holiday Inn' is the stand-out here, but even that could do without the sitars and swelling strings.

A good album, but something's just off for my taste.

This is an unapologetically straightforward album with a name that lays plain, what you're getting into.

I remember hearing this album for the first time. It compelled me! I couldn't resist the urge to bang my head, clench my fists, furrow my brow, twist my face and gnash my teeth as each track pounded and growled along. I wasn't generally a rage filled person, but the visceral force of this album was infectious. It gave me a means for realizing emotions I had packed away and provided me with some harmless catharsis.

This album isn't really in my rotation list anymore, but it was great to hear it again. I can only point to a few albums that have taken me out of the blue like that, and I appreciate them each for what they helped me to learn about myself.

As far as the music itself goes, its quintessential hardcore metal. There is no glam. The big hair is traded for shaved heads and sweaty mops. The skin tight pants are traded for ripped denim. These bands look more like the roadies, than the main attraction.

That plainspoken affect of the artists carries through to the sound. The guitars grunts, growl, screech and wail, trading blues rock riffs for prog-esque atypical time signatures. The drums, instead of rolling along in the background with the occasional flourish or solo, are right at the forefront, pounding out the path and playing equal parts with all other instruments. The vocals are a gravel throated fist to the face, evoking all of the emotions folded up into each track. All of this is prepared with a simple production quality, much like how the perfect Texas Brisket only needs salt, pepper, and time (prove me wrong).

In high school, I had a crush on a girl. She had long since decided we should only be friends. I had my head buried deep in the self-absorbed teenage sands and I was unfoundedly convinced that the time for our true relationship was imminent. You would've thought I'd have known better, given she already had a boyfriend.

One day, she asked me to drive her to boyfriend's house, to which I agreed because ... of course I wanted to hang out with her! We got there and the plan somehow turned into the three of us hanging out in my car, in the dude's driveway. They chatted and cuddled while I strummed my guitar. In hindsight, I'm sure there were numerous clear signals that I should have gone for a walk or something, but as I said I was oblivious.

In fact, as the plan went on, I became progressively convinced that I had been invited along because somewhere deep down inside she wanted to leave this guy and be with me. The masterstroke of my subterfuge, most certainly, would be my musical prowess.

In reality, I was shit at playing the guitar and the main reason I was there is primarily because I had a car.

I feel like Tim Buckley and young me, were on a similar wavelength.

On the whole, In Rainbows is a spatial and casually meandering album that feels at once both intricately detailed and yet effortlessly crafted. From reading the related Wikipedia article, it sounds like creative process that brought the band to this end was chaotic, but I would never have guessed from listening.

Overall, the mood of the album is very cohesive and gives off an air of genre-bending high-art rock. While the majority of the album flirts back and forth between the upper boundaries of melancholy and the lower boundaries of explosion, the one track that bursts through with non-stop energy is 'Bodysnatchers'. I love this track and would be interested to hear a mix of the album that builds up to this as the conclusion, since it feels like such a perfect culminating track.

This album lines up with the stereotypes of country music that I was indoctrinated to dislike as a youth. The album has the feel of a honky-tonk meets crooner longue act, which could potentially be enjoyable, if wasn't for the fact that the whole thing is so monotonous and monotoned. For kicks, listen to the first 10 seconds of the tracks 'A Girl in the Night', 'Pride' and 'If She Could See Me Now' respectively, and see if you can figure out which is which.

And that's kind of my problem with the whole thing. It's basically the same song, over and over and over again. Heck, the first distinguishing moment I heard in any of these songs didn't come until 1m15s into the 11th track (out of 13). It's like the whole album is just one big song, or that each song is just a shortened version of the whole album. In effect I listened to the whole album 13 times, and that's about 12.5 times more than I ever wish I had.

Just how exactly a rock band that got their start in the 70s, manages to come back decade over decade and be relevant and fresh, is beyond me! Pump, is packed with hits which have remained in constant rotation on both Pop and Rock radio stations ever since. It's a testament to how when a group finds just the right blended musical sensibility, they can transcend audiences and cultural phases, and tap into a vein with music that people can't kick, like a bad habit.

The riffs and melodies are undeniably catchy, even if you're like me and you're not into the band all that much. With that in mind, I've got to give credit where credit is due.

For my tastes, I'd say 'The Other Side' is the real gem on this album. The layered vocal tracks on the hook are unshakable, the brass/wind section is jubilant, and the core of the band is just pounding along with a blues-rock vibe that even the staunchest prude can't help but tap their foot to.

I get why people would enjoy this. I do not.

The reason I love Dylan is the same reason I love Willie Nelson. Enchantingly simple arrangements and enthrallingly detailed narratives.

A dense and energetic album, that has added to my snowballing desire to delve more deeply into the world of Jazz. Two things stand out to my extremely untrained jazz-listening ears.

The musical agility of each performer is incredible. My hands and lungs ache just thinking about the endurance and precision of movement and breath involved to play these parts. This stands out clearly in the tracks 'Move', 'Budo' and more subtly in 'Israel'.

The band is cohesive and perfectly aligned with one another. Their level of collective coordination, even amongst the most frenetic parts of the songs, reveals their dedication to the craft. I can't really point to anyone track as showcasing this more than any other, as I feel like it's evident at all points, in all tracks.

I dig the vibe, but the energy is pretty flat. It's kind of like psychedelic punk, which I don't feel meshes all that well.

It's remarkable how deftly the band flirts with and yet ultimately rejects a purely pop quality. Each song teeters on the edge of falling into the catchy pop tune chasm, threatening to fall in, if it weren't for the chaotic and dissonant anchors, holding it back.

While not a terrible song, 'Look Inside America' shows what I'm talking about. Compared to every other song on this album, it's quite straight forward. It's nice, but it feels a little flat amongst the crowd.

All told though, the album is a better listen than I recall, and with the benefit of hindsight, a noteworthy standout from the "alternative" crowd of the time.

It must've been the historical context that made this album important, because I'm just not getting it out of context. British art-house post punk with an overtop smack of zeal that borders on being campy and self-satirizing but could also just be a leadman who can't help from being over the top.

Oh, the days when every single hip-hop album had skits. What was that about?

I kind of struggled with this album, since it feels to me more like two albums blended together. One is socially minded, has a purpose, and is focused. This album includes tracks like 'B.O.B. - Bombs Over Baghdad', 'Humble Mumble', 'Spaghetti Junction', 'Xplosion', and '?'. The tracks are musically and lyrically dense and each is full of enough dimension and depth to keep them fresh for years.

The other album is sophomoric, goofy, and full of "get my stank on" innuendo (or worse). I'm thinking of tracks like 'Snappin' & Trappin'', 'We Luv Deez Hoez', and all the skits.

On the whole, it is a great hip-hop/rap album that pushes the boundaries and challenges pre-conceived notions. I do think it would've benefitted from being 8-10 tracks lighter, but I can also appreciate that the group was probably having a great time being in full control of their recording process.