Reviews by korb

This album has the feel of a high energy anti-establishment punk album of the 70's, heard through the haze of heavy sedatives. The tempo is slower, the gritty effects are traded for rich and mellow reverbs, but the bite is everywhere and just beneath the surface. Check out the track "All That Jazz" to hear what I mean.

This is a great album and pair perfectly with works from groups like the Clash. I'm surprised that I never really listened to this group, but I know I will be now!

I remeber being kid in the video store and seeing the wall sized poster for this album/movie. I had no real idea of who Prince was and my parents seemed pretty eager to keep it that way, but I remeber being frozen in awe of just how damned cool Prince must be.

So, the elephant in the room - Darling Nikki. What a singularly fascinating song. I'm sure the sexual subject matter and the outro with lyric played in reverse is a big part of why this whole album was the focus of so much conservative and censorship ire. It's probably also part of the reason why my parents weren't stoked to see me gawking at the poster, all those years back. If you can look past that though, it is a relentlessly catchy track, merging funk, rock and healthy portion of musical theater.

Outside of that one salacious track, the rest of the album is focused on common funk and R&B lyrical themes. The arrangements, the live band vibe, Prince's vocal diversity and improvisation all come together with fluid perfection. Nearly every track is a stand alone hit, and played back to back they sound cohesive and congruent.

An all out great album!

Contrary to what the WIKI article suggests, I wouldn't say Turbonegro shed their punk sensibilities, for an all-out glam rock style. The opening track "The Age of Pamparius" defintely gives you the impression you're in for a glam-rock adventure, flying on the back of a flaming guitar, but that gives way to well worn punk standards, just a song later. Moreover, track titles like "Don't Say Motherfucker, Motherfucker", "Redezvous With Anus" and "Good Head" make it pretty clean the group isn't taking themselves too seriously.

In general, the album is fairly middle of the road punk, but with a longer format (more songs are longer than 3m, than aren't). I think they would've been better served by keeping each song tight and fast (giggity). I enjoyed the straight forward energy of the album, but the sophmoric lyrical subject matter was a detractor for me. I can get behind an appropriately depraved song (I'm thinking GWAR of Tenacious D), but this just felt pointless/aimless.

I am still intrigued to hear more from the band. A quick glance at their top tracks on Spotify gives me the impression they've remained pretty superficial. We'll see if they grow on me over time.

Clearly talented musicians, but I've never really connected with their work. This album didn't change that for me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

The quality of this recording of a live performance puts a massive swath of studio albums to shame. Sure, we lose Mr. Brown a bit while he's working the crowd, but that's the price you pay to work the instrument that is the audience; and it's worth it in the long run, as the crowd swells and swoons along with the tracks.

Literally every song is winner. I couldn't help but move my feet and wiggle in my seat as I listened along to tracks like "Think", "Night Train" and even the various instrumental brides. When things slowed down on "Try Me" and "I Don't Mind" I was still swaying along and hanging on every verse.

This album provides a glimpse into the undeniable fact that James Brown (and his band) had mastered the art of the stage show, and that's even without being able to see his expressions and footwork.

I wish I had had the chance to see them myself. That chance has passed. But I'm glad to have albums like this, so I can at least glimpse into the experience and carry the energy on in my heart.

The lyrics may well be clever, but I can't get over the music and the vocals to appreciate them. Albums like this make me wonder what it is that I can't hear, because I really can't understand why this would be on the list.

How does one approach an established genre,rip away all conventions, and interpret it entirely anew?
This album is a veritable master class in doing just that. FKA twigs' vision of R&B is wholly her own and it creates an infinitely large space for creativity, where it seemed (to my uninitiated ear) there was wasn't much left to work with.

This break-neck sprint of an album is a striped down and pure cut rock gem! The sound of the group lives right at the intersection of punk and metal and there is absolutely no pretense about the fact that they came to party. Each track has an almost bootleg quality, which is a testament to the skill and sensibility of their producer.

On the whole the album is fairly uniform and a bit of a one-trick pony, but I happen to really like that one-trick, so it suits me fine.

This group is an enigmatic blend that defies explanation but somehow manages to find a endearing niche amongst the North American pop greats!

The band is extremely tight and the production of the music is crystal clear. You can hear everyone doing their part and all parts and transitions are exactly in their places and precisely on their marks. Byrnes’ lyrics and vocals are both equally complex and precise, but not altogether too serious either.

In all, the band was and remains quite unique. Their vision feels so precise that it’s easy to take for granted as just a given while it rolls by on the radio. But listening closer will reveal something really special that always has me scratching my head wondering, where in the world did they come up with this!

An energetic and playful contrast to the prim and tidy arrangements of the 50s and before. Nearly 60 years on, this album is packed with back-to-back holiday standards.

I expected disco, so I was glad when that assumption didn't hold up. What I didn't expect is just how all over the place this album would be. The album sounds like it was pulled together from many directions, including psychedelic folk, light rock, country and the symphony.

Some songs sound like David Bowie tracks ("You'll Never See My Face Again"). Others sound almost like CCR ("Marley Purt Drive"). Others still have a Beatles vibe ("Melody Fair", "Never Say Never Again", and my favorite track "Whisper Whisper").

I don't really get what pulls it all together to make it work, but somehow, the album manages to work. I think the comparison mentioned in the Wikipedia article to Sgt. Pepper is apt.

It's like the deliberate surrealism of Salvador Dali , with Van Gogh's fuzzed and enriched palette. The album is at once a hazy blur of sound and a precise vision of production.

I think it's the sort of album that a student or a music industry professional could study endlessly, in search of just how they manged to so completely fill every possible inch of the soundscape.

I'm not sure that I really connect with the album all that much. It feels like more of a work of Dali, and I'm more of a Van Gogh fan (to reuse my earlier anologies), but I can fully appreciate the artistry involved.

I contiuously get Moby and the Chemical Brothers mixed up, even to this day, and that's not saying much in my book.

The soundscapes are richer and not as entirely monotonous, but I still feel like I can see the repetitive layering and unlayering in every single track. The formula is laid out bare within a few songs, and then every track thereafter just feels like a reskin of the same thing.

What ultimately kills it for me though, is Moby's voice. There was a time when the guy would get on any microphone within his greater radius and he would rant on and on about whatever political topic he felt compelled by at the moment. That's entirely within his right to do. Ultimately though his voice, in my head, became inseperable with the sense of impending agenda bombardment, and now I can't unhear it.

I wonder what I would think of this album, if it was new to me again?

As an aside, I swear the chorus and mid-song bridge on "South Side" is the musical and spiritual ancestor to "Friday" by Rebecca Black. That flasetto is horendous.

A raging and raw album that floats between calm focus and chaos bursting at the seams (check out the tracks "Shoot", "Wish Fulfillment" and "JC" to see what I'm talking about). The parallel lyrical themes of mourning and female harassment/exploitation ground the album with a weight of meaning that either puts you off or pulls you in.

For me, I appreciate their willingness to be honest and I think the album endures because of it.

It's a lovely sort of ramble that sounds to me like a Sunday afternoon. I'm guessing it takes a certain frame of mind to fully appreciate.

70's Black Sabbath is unbelieveably good. Sludge/stoner metal is a genre I can't get enough of, so this recommendation fell on happy ears!

The album starts off with the +7m30s musical journey of "Wheels of Confusion / The Straightener", which shows those pretentious prog-rockers exactly how this sort of thing is supposed to work. Following that is the far more straight forward verse/chorus/verse growl of "Tomorrow's Dream".

And then a ... piano and synthesized strings!? "Changes" is a beautiful departure from the general feel of the album, which is mirrored on the other end of the album by "Laguna Sunrise". Both offer a moment of calm, to catch your breath from all of the rock in between.

And then the album ushers you out, the same way it welcomed you in, which the medley of subtracks brought together in "Under the Sun / Every Day Comes and Goes"

For those that have never looked into Sabbath, or that might've been turned off to the band by tracks like "Crazy Train", I think "Vol. 4" is a much better album to form your opinion on.

Regardless, I appreciate the album both for what it is and for what it represents in the evolution of rock and metal. Super glad to see it on the list!

I love the sound of this album. It is ohrwurms from start to finish.

There is a driving punk persistence to every song, thanks to the near metronomic accuracy of the rhythm section. Check out "When It Started" or "The Modern Age" to see what I mean.

Riding on top, is the collection of guitars and vocals, all wrapped in a warm distortion that provides a cunning disguise for just how precise and polished the performances really are.

Tying it all together are the production details that create a sense of depth as you listen to them. Put on some headphones and the track "Roma" and listen to the guitars play tug-of-war with your attention and dance around on the aural stage.

I recorded this show on VHS and rewatched it so often, the magnetic media started to wear down. It is entirely impossible for me to disconnect this album from the experience of finally having access to my favorite band, for an entire show. The memory is made all the more poigniant by it's proximity to Kurt's suicide, where this entire show took on an entirely different palor and tone.

Attempting to detach myself from my deep connection to the moment in time, the album itself is still legitimately great music. The pop relatability of the band's music, including their covers, is made plain in every track. Kurts vocals are remarkably stable and smooth, save for when he's growling out a chorus. Throughout it all, there is a tenderness and an intimacy that is common through the early days of the unplugged performances, and for which this album established the watermark.

Really, the only reason I don't listen to this album much at this point, is because it hurts a little too much to listen to. Then again, it is better to have loved and lost, than it is to have never loved at all.

I think, I might actually get it... well a bit more than I used to anyhow. What I'm connecting with on this listening is that Cohen's work is great, for being a phenominal template.

Interestingly enough, I was listening to some of the backup vocalists on tracks such as "Ain't No Cure for Love", "Everybody Knows" and "Take This Waltz" when it dawned on me.

I still don't care much for Cohen's vocals or his drone delivery, but I can think of plenty of other artists that I would love to hear perform these songs.

And that's ok, right? This is the 1001 best _albums_, not 1001 best performers.

BTW - What is the world was going on with "Jazz Police"?!

Huh. I didn't really connect with the album. It's just shy of 40 minutes and I still couldn't resist the urge to keep skipping ahead, looking for something that evoked a sense of how this is one of the 1001 greatest albums.

By the time I got to "It You Think You're Lonely Now", I felt like I'd already heard what the album had to offer and my interest was entirely lost.