Reviews by korb

Still not really my cup of tea.

I find it funny that the album is lauded as an everyman down-to-earth rock'n'roll performance, when it's loaded so full of grandeur and production. It's like countrypolitan, but for rock.

Anyhow, my pretentious opinions of genres and musical taxonomy aside, this is a powerful album. The band's performances are impeccable and the whole group is operating seamlessly. It's great to hear each person playing off of the other, adding to the energy and flow. Nearly every track has a building swell, especially the central trio of 'Backstreets', into 'Born to Run' into 'She's the One', where it seems the band is about to boil over into musical explosions. And somehow, the recording equipment just barely takes it all in and keeps it together.

In the end, Bruce's contributions tie it all together. His lyrics are specific enough to fell real, while open enough for almost anyone to find their place in them. His voice and delivery imbue each track with a genuine depth and range of emotion. You can tell his heart is in everything and that comes through in the durable goodness of this album.

Why are there three Pixies albums on this list? Honestly, all you need is this one and folks get the point.

The Pixies are the consummate artist's artist for the whole grunge era of musicians and this album was the inspirational darling of the bunch. It also represents their greatest commercial success. So, you've got to give them credit for that.

A delightfully polymorphic punk album that leans more towards the cerebral/art-house vibe.

"Here is my music. It is all I have to tell you how I feel. Know that your love keeps my love strong."

I find it hard to believe that it took 15 studio albums for Motown Records to start giving Stevie leeway enough to make an album like this. Granted I know nothing of what that process was like, but I get the impression that these songs were just dying to come out. Fortunately for all of us Stevie Wonder was patient enough, and still full of love enough, to create this and so much more to come.

'You Are The Sunshine Of My Life' is a beautiful track and 'Superstition' (and most of it's subsequent covers) is one of the greatest tracks of all time, but the real highlight for me is 'I Believe'!

Genius obscured and nearly completely undermined by scandal and controversy. Eminem's ability to craft rhymes and flows within, across and all over bars is mind-boggling. But it's hard to hear it (or show it off to people) when so much of the lyrical content is explosively offensive.

Rapcore has its place on this list, but this is not the banner carrier that I would have picked. The Judgement Night soundtrack was the groundbreaker for me. Otherwise, you could point to some Run DMC, Beastie Boys, or Linkin Park. Even Limp Bizkit's prior album ('Significant Other') would've been more logical in my opinion.

Now, with that out of my system...

This is a better album that I had always assumed it was. I was completely exhausted by the celebrity drama surrounding Fred Durst at the time this album came out. Once I heard the infantile album title, I wrote the whole shebang off.

The band is true to what brought them into success.
Fluid energy that ebbs from chill to explosive and swaggered lyrical delivery. The tracks that show this off well (with minimal lime-light grabbing tough guy posturing from Fred) are 'The One', 'Take A Look Around', and 'Boiler'.

The absolute highlights of the album 'Rollin' (Urban Assault Vehicle)' and 'Outro' are buried way at the end. Granted the first sounds more like a DMX track than a Limp track, and the latter is made by Ben Stiller, so maybe neither should count.

The progressive rock opera magnus opum! I'm not a raging fan of everything that Floyd does, but it's hard to not be in awe of something this grand and ambitious coming together so perfectly.

If, like me, you are one of the few people in the world who have never heard this album all the way through, consider giving it two listens. Start with a full playthrough without reading the Wikipedia page. What was the story about? Then go read the Wikipedia page (specifically the plot) and then listen to the album again. How did that effect what you heard?

The first time I heard the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, I thought it was a new PJ Harvey album. The amalgamation of synth/electronic, punk, with a touch of eccentricity, is perfectly topped with Karen O's haunting vocal character.

The opening track 'Shout' sets the ethos of album perfectly. The musical space created across 'Songs From the Big Chair' is voluminous and enveloping, thanks to ambient keyboard pads and reverb-a-plenty. The result is a sense that each song feels like there is enough space in it to shout your lungs out and still barely be heard. And from within that space, the group laments, longs, reflects, and rejoices. The track 'Working Hour' shows how enchanting the effect can be.

It really is a beautifully enduring album, in addition to being a powerhouse hit of its time.

Blues infused rock with the distortion amped up and a vocalist that sounds like Rob Stewart. What's not to like? It's funny to think how novel this was when it was released, because nowadays it's almost forgettable. I'd say 'Beck's Bolero' is probably my favorite of the bunch, mainly because I'm a sucker for instru-metal.

Perhaps it was influential, or perhaps it was derivative. I don't really have the desire to figure out which. What I can say is that the album, while not particularly bad in any way, doesn't really interest me all that much. The production is impressive throughout, and I definitely catch glimpses and connections to musical themes that I enjoy, in songs like 'King's Lead Hat', 'Here He Comes', and 'By This River'. Not sure I'll be coming back to this one though.

Acerbic, visceral, seemingly chaotic and yet very intentional. If you aren't listening close, you may not catch that nearly the entire album is a tongue-in-cheek cautionary plea to not waste your life away.

I guess I'm not into the Stooges. What I really can't understand is why this group would be on this list more than once, given all of their work pretty much sounds the same.

A grand fusion of house/dance beats, hip-hop breaks, and jazz/R&B instrumentation, all with an undertone and influence of African roots. When it all comes together, as in the hit songs like 'Keep On Movin'' and 'Back To Life (However Do You Want Me)' as well as lesser-known songs like 'Happiness Dub' and 'Jazzie's Groove - Piano Version', it really hits.

As an album on its own, it's not all that bad but I can't say I enjoyed it all that much. I do think there are a couple tracks like 'You Got A Reputation' and 'Pretty Polly' that sit in the middle of where the band was and where they were aiming to go, which I found a lot more interesting than the majority of the album.

I get the impression that the album is less on the list for how individually great it is and more for the fact that it was a complete revamp of a widely popular band's sound/genre. There are other examples of bands doing this (Ministry's early albums, Garth Brooks' grunge album under the name Chris Gaines, Eddie Vedders ukulele album to a lesser extent). I can't recall a band that has navigated this transition well and certainly not in the span of a single album. If there was a group that did that, I could see why that transitional album would be here.

A couple of radio hits and a bunch of super slow synth rock. Meh.

Exploring, pushing, and in some places blasting past the established boundaries and assumptions of hip-hop at that time. How this guy and his collaborators were able to capture the sound of 20 years of hip-hop music to come, is really amazing.

It's a tough call, but if I were forced to decide, I think this is the pinnacle of Kraftwerk's discography. Despite the digital precision of their instruments, the sounds across these tracks flow smoothly, like a masterfully hewn marble sculpture.

And with that work done, the groundwork was laid for numerous groups and genres to come. Groups like Daft Punk and The Orb and genres like ambient, house, and synthwave built upon that ground bringing EDM on the whole solidly into the mainstream. Now the use of computers are ubiquitous in all aspects of making music, so much so that working without them is the exception as opposed to the norm. In that sense, groups like Kraftwerk were pioneering multiple levels and their influence can hardly be overstated.

If I had this on vinyl and I listened to it with a cigarette and a bottle of wine, I'm sure I would be giving this at least one additional star.

Sober as I am, it felt like I was listening to French diction instruction on cassette, which is unfortunate as I think something more balanced would be far more enjoyable to listen to.