Reviews by korb

I keep wanting to get into the music, but the lyrics and the vocalist break the immersion each time. The prose lands as sophomoric and the lead singer's performance comes off as over the top. It's not a horrible album, I just can't see what makes it all that great.

There is something to be said for a band revered amongst the Seattle grunge scene, opting to stick with 8-track mixes and holding firm to their sub pop label. In an amongst the grunge power-chord tropes like 'Shoot The Moon', there are tracks like 'Something So Clear', 'Thorn', and 'Fuzz Gun '91' that show this group had a lot more to say and do. Kudos to them for going after that vision and kudos to this list for recognizing the value of it.

I mean, if you're going to do a musical thought experiment, I can't think of too many artists that would be better to do with than David Byrne.

Points for an artist that reinvents themself, but I can't get over how every song is laid out in the first 15-30 seconds, and then it's just a loop thereafter. The album made for fine alt-pop airtime filler when radio stations were clamoring to fill their dockets with "grunge", but I don't think this one really stood the test of time as being something I had to hear.

k.d. has a lovely voice, for whatever my opinion on that is worth. If I had to listen to a bunch of slow songs back-to-back (as I just did), I think I'd prefer they follow the stripped-down simplicity of 'Wash Me Clean'. There are so many non-essential parts and finishes on the other tracks!

The only hotter than this album's critical reception at the time, would be the intensity of this band's flash in the pan.

It's an impressive debut, and it's ok, but if you really want to give due credit to Brit-Hop let's talk about Kae Tempest or The Streets.

I honestly can't think of a metal album that can top Black Sabbath's 'Paranoid'. It is perfection from start to finish.

The intro of 'War Pigs' sets the stage. The distortion growls ominously as feedback lurks on the edges, threatening to collapse in at any moment. The bassline dances into the song, muffled but solid, and sort of bounces and lurches around as the guitars snarl on. Then the feedback fuses into growing sirens, all three parts now building to a crescendo. And with two synchronized strums, it all crashes to a silent stop.

And that is how the entire album continues. The songs are crafted and molded and shaped into movements that tell a story on multiple levels. Everything working in unison and in harmony, even if the parts are distorted (always) and dissonant (at times).

This album honestly changed my understanding of what music was capable of and I completely agree that it is an album that everyone should here at least once in their life!

This is bizarre.

The bookend tracks of 'Violet' and 'Rock Star' show the immense capacity that Hole had to absolutely rock! The album is powerful, dynamic, and genuine. That combination made it a standout from the crowded 90's grunge era and I'd go so far as to say that it was a better album than Nirvana's 'In Utero'.

It's magical when someone is able to create something novel. We all have access to the same raw materials, techniques, and tools after all. But somehow, sometimes, someone is able to combine them in a way that creates something so entirely new that it changes how people approach their own creative process from that point forward.

I'm not going to claim I'm a huge Tom Waits fan after listening to this album. I still struggle to relate to the allure. But I do think this album delivers as novel of a musical vision as any of the greats. The whole album evokes imagery of a gritty world filled with hard lived lives, viewed through the blurred lenses of hungover eyes.

The album's production value is intimate, simple, and unpolished which compliments the artist-and-their-guitar format well. The tender musical delivery belies how serious the lyrics are. While the album fits in somewhere on the folk spectrum between Nick Drake and Dylan's earlier work, it doesn't really rise to the greatness of either of those comparisons in my armchair music critic mind.

It's lauded as a grand work of someone with a vision for what they wanted to achieve with their art. It doesn't really resonate with me. I'm sure this is right up someone's alley, but I'll pass. The stories around his music videos sound hilariously terrifying though.

I want to like it, really I do, but there just isn’t something there I connect with. By the time ‘Sitting Still’ came on, I found myself ready for the album to end.

With elements of Blur, The Flaming Lips, Radiohead, and even a bit of Fleet Foxes tossed in, this savory stew of alt-brit-pop hit all the right notes for this frozen winter day. Wild, I’ve never heard of this group!

The album depicts a slice of life perspective on England, at times in a reminiscent rear-view (i.e. 'Picture Book', 'Village Green') and other times in the first-person (i.e. 'Big Sky', 'Sitting By the Riverside'). It felt like a follow-up album to David Bowie's debut self-titled album, in a way.

Be that as it may, the album is singularly true to its vision which I found intriguing when listened to from start to finish. It was like each song transported me into different consciousnesses, each sharing a moment in time and vibin on a similar sentiment of thought, and yet each being entirely its own. I had a personal connection to the song 'Village Green' in particular, based on my own visit to one such green, in township outside of Lytham St Annes once.

So, yeah. Once I took my mind out of musical consumer mode, and kicked it into art reflection mode, my perception of the album changed. Perhaps the timeline of the album's popularity tells a similar story. In any case, credit where credit is due.

Pretty much one in a sea of a thousand bands that sounded just like this in the 90's. If it had been made in 1977, that at least would be noteworthy. I really don't understand how this album represents anything that I haven't heard already.

I almost entirely forgot that Ice-T was a "hardcore gangsta" rap artist, before becoming a type-casted investigator in every single crime drama television show on TV made in the last decade.

Honestly, this isn't all that special. The lyrics are largely sophomoric posturing (i.e. 'Ziploc'). The rhymes are mostly pretty obvious ends, slants, and identical. The verse timing is mostly repetitive and don't do much to play off of or enhance the tracks, with the notable exception of 'Lifestyles of the Rick and Infamous'. Some of the tracks are fun (i.e. 'Bitches 2'), with a ton of samples and layers, but in general they don't stand out from the crowd all that much.

It's unfortunate because Ice-T seems like a pretty thoughtful guy who would have something important to say. There are glimpses of that in 9 tracks after 'M.V.P.s', for sure.

Anyhow, if you want high quality early 90's rap, there is plenty of it. Let's put Jurassic 5's 'Quality Control' in here, instead!

I loved this era in rock, when groups like The Strokes, Franz Ferdinand, Jet, Wolfmother, and the Arctic Monkeys were aggressively blasting fuzzed-out, syncopated songs that you could barely resist the urge to get up and dance to. I mean, how many rock songs have you heard that are as danceable as 'Take Me Out' or 'This Fire'!?

I do not care for this. I understand the appeal of it. I just don't find it all that engaging, novel, or profound. Really not sure why it's here, beyond the Mrs. Robinson single, which wasn't even part of the album originally.