Reviews by korb

10 songs in, there was no mistaking what the group had set out to do. Satirically emulating pop music, and by extension the industry and the cultural mindset that makes it possible, is a risky bit for a debut album. Diogenes would have been proud!

Then the track 'Trouble Every Day', drops the pretense and the Mothers show you a bit of what they truly are. An adept psych-blues band with a penchant for laser focused social commentary.

The remainder of the album slips and descends slowly into chaos, culminating in a true freak out of a track with 'The Return Of The Son Of Monster Magnet.' I guess they needed to fill the 2nd record with something.

A wild ride, indeed.

"I know. Let's make a rock band, that walks in the stylistic footsteps of Wily Wonka's Oompa Loompa's" - Small Faces

Want to guarantee that your album will be relegated to near obscurity, regardless of its musical merits or cultural relevance? Drop some hard-r'd N words. I do not condone the use of the word and it drives me nuts to hear it here, as the album is otherwise super impressive.

I get why it's here, but I really wish it wasn't.

I get the feeling that people thought this was a Flaming Lips album until they got a couple tracks in.

No thanks.

There is plenty of Madonna's music that merits being on this list, but this isn't it in my opinion. As a professional musician, she's obviously welcome to try anything she wants, but just because her name is on it doesn't mean it's worth listening to.

What!?

I was struggling to understand why this was on the list, then I finally got to 'Time of the Season' and I realized this was another one of those albums that is put on the list because of a popular single. I don't personally find the album all that interesting.

Hilarious that this recommendation comes up immediately following Dre's 'The Chronic'. Two break-out hits for hip-hop in 1992. The contrast between the crotch-and-gun-clutching nonsense of the former versus the social justice and love focus of the latter, is the perfect example of the spectrum that hip-hop occupies. Respect to Arrested Development for going after the higher ground!

I'm a fan of rap, I really am. I just can't get over how pointless the lyrics are.

Some of these songs seem practically purpose built for driving listeners away. The album has the affect of a schizophrenic's notebook.

If I wanted to hear three dudes jacking each other off, I'd have gone to pornhub.

Well, if you're into the Stone Roses, you're going to dig 'Tellin' Stories'. Who did it better?

As simple and intricate and delicate and lovely as a spider's web. A bit terse and rough at points as well, but overall enchanting. Definitely much more accessible than most of Cohen's albums.

That right there was some fairly "dime a dozen" 90's brit alt-rock, that I would've been just fine with not hearing before I died. I mean, seriously, why did the British music producers of that day think they could simply stick a string quartet behind any mediocre band off the streets and start printing gold records!?

Who would have thought that a bunch of country boys that had been the backing band for their holy-rolling Dad's revival tent tours, would one day break out and make a dixie punk band!? Their sound has matured and evolved over the years, but what an exciting debut this must've been for them.

Well, it's better than Oasis, but the album is still like the Cheesecake Factory of 90's brit pop. They do a reasonable job of most everything, but everyone is really only there for one thing.

The production value of this album alone is worth all of the stars you have to give. Seriously, production studios soundcheck their equipment with this album. Look it up.

Then the musical trio come in with the performances that are as precise as they are powerful, fronted by Tom Morello's boundary defying guitar tracks. The soundscapes that he creates honestly redefine what most thought was possible with a guitar. I mean honestly, how in the world did they come up with "Settle for Nothing"!?

And then Zack comes in with his punch-to-the-gut lyrical tour de force that harkens to Gil Scott-Heron's pleas to wake people up from their entranced complacency.

The mainstream honestly had no idea what was coming when these guys showed up on the musical scene in the grunge era. Their fight-the-system sensibility was simultaneously anachronistic and rife for rediscovery.

The song that sums it all up perfectly is "Wake Up". It is a plea to awareness. A song as evocative as a hymn, a ballad, screaming to be heard and to be headed.

A trust in an idea and a collection of brilliant collaborators. A fascinating juxtaposition and combination of youthful spirit with old R&B soul. Truely novel.