Reviews by korb

A lovely meander through the creative pathways of some talented musical minds. Each song unfolds dynamically, themes flowing one into the other, at once both cohesive and distinct.

For me, it was like each song was a short story depicting the sights, sounds and energy of a person in movement through one setting or another. A couple of songs that evoked this sort of imagery most vividly for me were 'The Big Apple' and 'Maesha'. The latter of those two, being my personal favorite of the album.

There was a time where it felt like I couldn't turn on the radio without a track from this album coming on. 'Time to Pretend', 'Electric Feel', 'Kids', over and over. It makes it kind of hard to listen to the album objectively now.

What I like about this album, and others from that era like the self-titled debut from 'Vampire Weekend' and M.I.A.'s works around that time. It felt like popular music was becoming more expressive, freer from imposed conventions, and drawing from a fuller spectrum of influences, sounds, instruments, techniques and all of that it. I don't know that I can really pin any of that on this album, though.

Considering this album on its own, it feels more like two mini-albums. The cohesion and compellingly novel sound of the former, far greater (on both counts) than the latter. Going back to where I started though, I've heard the interesting parts of this album ad nauseum at this point, and the novelty has worn off. There are numerous albums that can stand that test and make it to infinite replay-ability. Not this one; not for me at least.

The songs on this album are like miniature templates for countless albums made thereafter.

Most of the group is on a great vibe and it's a shame (to me anyhow) that Johnny couldn't resist the urge to stand out from it all. 'Annalisa' and 'Public Image' are the two tracks where it sounds like everyone is working together in the same direction, and they show just how good it can be.

I think the person on the cover of the album laying on their back, staring despondently to some far-off place, mouth ajar seemingly sighing does well to capture how I felt when I first saw 'The Smiths' was on deck.

Pleasantly though was my surprise, as the album was much more energetic and enjoyable than I had vaguely recalled. Songs like 'Frankly, Mr. Shankly', 'Vicar in a Tutu' and 'Bigmouth Strikes Again' land as nearly bubbly, especially with the vivid lyrical storytelling. Yes, there are some ballad-esque tracks that are more akin to what I was dreading, but they provide a diverse texture to the album, when the album is taken on the whole.

A marvel of musical production that perfectly captures the spirit of both the performances and the underlying emotions and spirit of a group. The impact of this album on the band's trajectory, and that of pop music, really can't be overstated.

"The album was voted 18th of Scotland’s 100 Best Rock and Pop Albums in 2003"

My heart breaks for Scotland.

This is a joke, right? It sounds like a homemade backtrack, in the style of the Princess Bride soundtrack, for a recruitment VHS for the secret society of neckbearded katana enthusiasts. It evokes mental images of quick cuts between scenes of swords slicing halfway through 2-liter bottles of mountain dew, and dudes with fedoras bowing.

Honestly, the music itself doesn't have much to offer and I can't really think of what impact this band had on the history of music that would merit suggesting this is something that anyone has to hear in their lifetime. If anything, I'd suggest it's quite the opposite.

I could've sworn I stopped the Sade album. *checks Spotify* Oh, it's not Sade. I think I'd rather this one be 'Becoming X' by Sneaker Pimps. It scratches the same itch, which I don't need scratched that often, without sounding as derivative.

How am I supposed to go from Dead Kennedys to this, huh 1001 albums!?

Sade is good, but this is the wrong album. 'Love Deluxe' better be on the list, if anything from Sade is. All the pieces are there, but it's a bit one-note out of the gate.

So, that's the thing about shock rock. It's trying to satirically shake people loose from their complacency long enough to get them thinking. Problem is the other, more likely, reaction is for a knee jerk reaction because they think it's literal. Offended and now further entrenched, they remain complacent and bolsters in smug judgement.

But yeah, this is punk through and through!

The albums complete lack of pretense is disarming and enchanting. The songs are seemingly plain but there is a richness that steadily reveals itself in the re-listening.

'Mojo Pin' alone shows it all. The song flows and sprawls and climbs and falls, showing how perfectly harmonious the band and the performances are. Of course, there is also the album's pinnacle that is 'Hallelujah', which plays out as a lovers' embrace between Buckley's voice and his guitar.

It is beautiful and fleeting vision of what could have been, being Jeff's one and only.

A chill soundscape that apparently pioneered the genre of Jazz fusion. Not much music or material there to really hang your "this is genius" hat on, in my opinion, but I can appreciate that this represents a milestone in modern jazz.

It is wild to think about just how far out into the future it would be before an album like this was taken for granted in the musical mainstream. Kudos to Jean-Michel for setting those wheels into motion!

And this was when it all came together again, at least in a commercial sense, but I'd suggest that went hand-in-hand with the group's realization of what it aimed to be in the world.

'License to Ill' was the raucous debut that put the boys on the map. Then they did some existential roaming and soul searching through the wildernesses of 'Check Your Head' and 'Paul's Boutique'. What they found out there was a significantly evolved sense of self and identity and that came through in a way that nearly everyone could connect with.

Sure, they still had the rough edges ('Tough Guy', 'Sabotage'), and moderately childish demeanor ('Heart Attack Man') that people first knew them by, but their expanded influences ('Sabrosa', 'Flute Loop', 'Bodhisattva Vow', really almost the rest of the album) and their resulting applications and translations proved that they had come into something well beyond where they started.

That growth, that change, that evolution is exactly the kind of metamorphosis that I think merits a band having multiple albums on this list.

A classic sophomore over extension. The music is still moving and beautiful, but the increased production value of the whole thing really detracts from the essential nature of Nick Drake's brilliance. You just don't need things like a backing strings section, horns and backup vocalists to punch up the tracks. Without much surprise, the noteworthy tracks (i.e. 'One Of These Things First' and 'Northern Sky') from this album are constructed much more closely to tracks from 'Five Leaves Left'.

In hindsight, I should have rated 'Five Leaves Left' as 4 stars, because 'Pink Moon' is the real 5-star performance in my opinion. The album has an air of intimacy akin to Nelson's 'Red Headed Stranger'. Hearing the strings rattle, fingers sliding on the strings, the slight imperfections of the chords and the inhales between the phrases, all combine to create a musical atmosphere that is warm and enveloping.

The songs themselves are fascinatingly engaging given it's mainly just a man and his guitar. I'm re-listening to 'Harvest Breed' right now and it's a perfect example of what I'm talking about.

Overall, the album is a true gem and it set the standard for acts like Jose Gonzalez, Iron and Wine and many other 'an artist and their guitar' groups that came to follow.

A smooth county folk vibe that has echos of future acts like The Chicks. The stories are sweet, and the harmonies are warm.

All of the late 70's brit-punk hallmarks are there, but it's the blend chaos-to-polish-ratio and their more expansive lyrical focus, that sets the Adverts apart. It's like that noteworthy, albeit significantly lesser known, ancestor that gets a sentence or two in the genealogy.

Still, nope. It's as if Dracula wanted to try his hand at a rock'n'roll album.

Just a bunch of clean-cut looking kids exploring the limits of their combined energy and influences. If their generous use of exclamation marks is any indication, they came to rock.