Reviews by korb

Relentless soulful positivity. I'm shoked that so many songs that I've heard numerous times all come from one album, which I've never heard of.

I mean seriously... "I Feel the Earth Move", "Its Too Late", "You've Got a Friend", "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman)"!

It took me a couple run throughs to get a clear sense of what made the album great, but chalk that up to my crappy headphones.

If you only have the energy for one track, I found "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman)" to be the most emotionally dynamic track.

I think the cover of this album is just about the most perfect depiction of what I felt listening to this album.

The vibe of the album is intentional, pure, sparsely adorned, and holds your attention. The beats and arrangements are generally mellow and ride somewhere between jazz, hip-hop, funk and R+B. The instrumentals themselves are subtle and provide the solid foundation for the vocals, which always take center stage.

Stand out tracks for me include \"Weary\", \"Mad\" (where Lil Wayne contributed some genuinely heartfelt lines) and \"F.U.B.U\".

My sense of engagement with the album was disrupted by the occasional track where Solange's vocals sounded thin or strained. \"Where Do We Go\" is one such example, where I almost felt myself needing a warm cup of water and to take some extra breaths. Not sure what that was about, because it seemed really uncharacteristic when considered against the rest of the album.

That aside, I found the whole album to be really engaging and a welcomed introduction to an artist I'd never heard of before.

Its an eclectic bunch of songs, that's hard not to enjoy.

A couple songs strike me as a bit unsettled thanks to how emotionally disconnected Lou's vocals sounds from the rest of the performance. It works well for narrative songs like "Walk On the wild Side" and "New York Telephone Conversation", but feels flat on other songs like "Make Up".

Where the album really connects though are songs like "Perfect Day", "Vicious" and the final third of "Satellite of Love" (made even richer by Bowie's backup vocals).

Overall it's an enthralling album that crosses boundaries and sounds amazingly modern for an album that's has been our for nearly half a centry.

Sheesh - Way more ballads on this one that I know what to do with. It's interesting to see what's classified as rock n' roll over the years.

A few of the songs piqued my interest, and you can't help but love the title track. Beyond that though, it felt a little flat and dreary.

I guess I had to be there to appreciate it.

A bit of folk, a bit of rock, a bit of blues and all the reverb you can possibly muster. I dig the sound of the band in general, but the songs where Grace Slick took control are undeniably the best.

I appreciate what this band did in creating a new sound, one which plays through clearly in bands like "The Black Angles" and tons of similar dark folk bands out there today.

Out of context, I'm not sure the majority of the album does much for me, but I appreciate why it's on the list.

I'm conflicted by this album, but underpinning and riding above all musical opinions, is the feeling of loss. What could this band have done if Kurt had been able to get well and stay healthy?

I see the album as a conflicted stream of conciousness. You only need to hear the first two tracks back-to-back to get a sense of what I mean.

Tracks like "Heart-Shaped Box", "Dumb", "Pennyroyal Tea" and "All Apologies" playoff as near ballads. Others like "Scentless Apprentie", "Milk It" and "Tourette's" explode and writhe.

Throughout it all though, I just can't shake the sense that this album is primarily a band that is working through its understanding of itself. We, the listeners, are left with unresolved emotions and lingering questions.

I remember this album being super divisive with my friends that were into punk. They kept calling these guys sellouts, which I just couldn't wrap my brain around. How could a band be sellouts on their debut album, when they'd only just begun. Wouldn't that just mean that they are what they are? And why give a shit anyhow - the album was great!

The album is extremely tight. Billie and Mike's guitars are locked in an intricate and electrified swing dance, each locked to the same beat, but each with their own lightning fast and elaborate roles to play. Tre's drums are pounding, precise and raucously joyous. I think these descriptions stand out the most in the songs "Burnout", "Welcome to Paradise" and "In the End". Beyond the intrumentals though, the lyrics are actually about something, many speaking to the disillusioned and angst-filled vibe of the times. That and masturbation.

For me, this album ushered in my punk-rock awakening. It intrigued me and got me interested enough to want to delve into the genre further. And it's that bridging role that this album played for so many, that I think drew ridicule and acclaim alike. Some wanted to keep their punk secret safe and unsullied, whereas others wanted to see what they'd been missing.

I for one, was glad for it.

This album is a masterwork of an end-to-end experience. Every song is meticuously layered and arranged, creating an expansive and enveloping sound. I think "Fight Test", "Are You a Hypnotist??" and "In the Morning of the Magicians" are good examples of this.

But breaking up the album and considering it song by song, undermines the value of the ablum, which is at it's highest as a whole. Although the creators have insisted this is not a concept album, there is a unifying feel and an arch to that I continuously enjoy experiencing end-to-end.

Great storytelling makes great country music. Each and every song on this album feels like prose pulled from a hard-worn diary.

Lucinda’s syrup drawl and lilting vocals bound between hints of whispers, laments and growls.

The arrangements are simple, and well executed, but a touch simple for my taste.

I can clearly see the appeal of the album. I didn’t personally connect with it, but I can appreciate it.

The brilliant simplicity of the entire album, belies the complexity of it's appeal. The sound is visceral, the lyrics have depth and a purpose, and it is all exactly what it needs to be without any fluff or pretense.

This album is good for the soul. I can't help but feel the music and want to join in.

Aretha's powerful and adept vocals are first and foremost the glorious centerpiece of every track. But when I listen to songs like "A Change is Gonna Come" I also realize that her performances enhance the movement and the emotions of the underlying music as well. Every pause and flourish beautifully embelishes the solid framing that the band provides.

The songs don't just reference the range of human emotion, they evoke them, and that is one of the truest measures of art that I can think of.

I guess my take on Yes hasn't changed much from what I listended to "Close to the Edge". The band is clearly talented, the production is over the top good, and there is no doubt that the band has a huge following and has influenced countless other bands and artists.

For whatever reason, I personally just can't connect with the music. It feels showboaty and a bit sterile. There were moments in the latter half of "Yours is No Disgrace" and "Starship Trooper", where I picked up on something, but the whole vibe still feels like it's at an arm's length.

Another review wrote that it was like rush, but boring, and I think that sums it up perfectly.

Each time I listen to this album, I turn it on thinking I'll just play it in the background. And each time I listen to this album, I find myself progressing from unconciously tapping me feet to cranking it up and signing along. I just love how nearly every song grows and builds. "All My Friends" and "New York, I Love You but You're Bringing Me Down" both exemplify what I'm talking about.

Overall, this is one of my favorite albums and it's already on my list of heavy rotation, so it's easy for me to give this 4 stars.

I don't get it.

The arrangements are elaborate enough and the band (backed by a small orchestra it would seem) played them them perfectly. The production is slick and polished. The vocals are full of nicotine soaked rasp. The lyrics are dense and feel like short stories or letters read outloud.

But the music just lacks anything to connect to. Each song just sort of lilts into the next. The emotional register of each song is perfectly uniform, bordering on monotone.

Funny enough, "What Else Could It Be?" is like the one song I felt something with, and it's the one where the vocalist is singing in a screeching falsetto that seems two modulations higher than the vocalist dares belong. Yet, it kinda worked for me.

So, what am I missing? Why is this album on the list?

Its a fantastic album, crammed full of the energy and innovative novelty of a debut of an artist who will go on to greatness. I think the comparisons that others have made to Patti Smith's album "Horses" are apt in a lot of ways.

The song "Dress" perfectly exemplifies the simultaneously approachable and yet rough nature of the album. The song is compelled forward by the persistent beat, and everything feels like it is charging and driving forward to an unheard point of explosion. Another track with a similar energy, which I loved is "Joe".

But there are other faces to the album such as the somewhat swanky "Hair" or "Plants And Rags", which starts out as a girl and a guitar and slowly grows into an ensembled piece of at least 4 different stringed instruments that roll around eachother in near dissonance.

It was super fun to listen to, and I'm stoked to hear another phenominal female artist on this list.

I feel like the lead vocalist's sound is an inside joke that I'm just not in on. I mean listen to "Tell Me When My Light Turns Green" or "I'm Just Looking" and help me understand what is going on. It's like the first time I heard "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" from "The Darkness" and I struggled to understand if it was authentic or satire.

Looking over my difference in taste for the vocalist, tracks like "The Teams That Meet in Caffs" gave me a chance to consider the band on it's own. As a unit, they sound good. Not necessarily great, but good. I think they would probably sound great as a part of the background din of a pub, but the vibe didn't translate to recording in my opinion.

In the end, I couldn't bring myself to finish the album. My only assumption as to why this is on the list would be because of the impact the album had in it's historical context. Given this is the 2nd album by this band that I've come across in the list, I'm a bit concerned. Especially given I've yet to see entire genres (i.e. classical, world music) represented. I can't really fathom how this one is on the list at all.

I've never really sat down and listened to James Taylor, and to be honest I had the guy mixed up in my head with Jimmy Buffet. Ha!

Once I realized (happily) I wouldn't be hearing Margaritaville, I settled into the album and was pleasantly surprised. James' vocals are so rich and clear, I couldn't help but be immediately drawn in.
The album had it's share of folky ballads, which I expected, but the blend of country, folk, blues and even the touch of gospel provided far more musical diversity and depth than I expected. I think the tracks "Lo and Behold", "Steamroller Blues", "Oh Baby, Don't You Loose your Lip on Me" and the latter half of "Suite for 20 G" show this well.

Given James' music remains ubiquitous to this day, it's undeniable that his music deserves it's place in this list.

I've been remiss for dismissing it on account of having heard the "big hits" umpteen-million times, so next time I'm relaxing on a lazy day, I know where to go digging.

The version that I found on Spotify was the 2013 re-release, which included a bunch of extra tracks, but I will keep this vote limited to the origional first nine tracks ("Inspiration Information" through "Not Available").

Overall, I really liked the album, for what it was. It actually felt more like two sub-albums put together into one.

The first four tracks are completely constructed compositions with vocals on top. The title track is the stand-out of them all, but I didn't think "Aht Uh Mi Hed" (read "That hurt me head" in a cockney lilt, I think) was far off.

Then, starting with "Happy House", the album gives way to more experimental and funky tracks, which are entirely instrumental. Of that set, I particularly enjoyed "Happy House", "XL-30" and (to a lesser extent "Pling!". These tracks felt more like musical streams of conciousness, and I felt a connection of influence all the way to more current tracks by artist like Knxwledge.

And then the (original) album wraps up with "Not Available", which I think is short for, "We had a song ready to record but the singer was Not Available". The song sounded ready to go, and it's just missing someone to sing along.

That sort of sums up the album in general, I think, and the fact that there were two more releases with two sets of additional tracks added seems to support this. When it was released, despite 3 years of production, the album was still sitting as a work in progress. It has some gems, shows a lot of promising ideas, and who knows... maybe a couple more re-releases and it will feel complete.

I can't really say that this album did anything for me. It all kind of sounded the same and I didn't feel much of a connection to any of it. I guess I can see why the band opted to call it quits after this.

I'd never heard 'Eli And The Thirteenth Confession' and I'd never heard of Laura Nyro, so this was a complete surprise to me. In a word, the album struck me as ambitious.

Laura's vocals are powerful and each song's arrangement feels packed full, to the point of bursting with purpose and intent.

I can see why this would be an infuential album and I can also see how a number of these songs would go on to be hits for other bands as well.