Reviews by krill_42

Not always is the Beta-Version the better version. Or wait… is it?

Was Vincebus Eruptus highly influential and formative for creating heavy psych rock/metal? For sure. And I kind of feel that one misses the point if one were trying to categorise this as bad or good or something in between. I mean the opening duplet is great (two awesome covers) and then there is the guitar solo in Doctor Doctor… You will know from the opening seconds whether this is an album for you. The genre became so refined within a such a short time span after Blue Cheer entered the stages of this world, but still this sorta dilettante vibe, I dunno it rules and it’s just irreproducible.

Wait, what is that? A turntable-scratching evil twin of the Red Hot Chili Peppers going Tool-cover-band-lite, which somehow manages to sound even more pretentious than the sum of its parts? Woah, this is some serious alt-rock/post-grunge/nu-metal schlock of the worst kind. Urgh. I guess you had to be there…??

And yet another record that made the list largely because some sophisti-pop musician from the UK was involved. In general, I do appreciate that the editors wanted to include a few odd ones out - perhaps as a bet on “this will be a future classic.” Since the initial list must have been compiled around 2005, not much water had yet run down the Thames between the editing and the release of Ute Lemper’s Divine Comedy-arranged album, so the editors had to do a bit of guessing as to which records from that period would still feel relevant twenty years later. Punishing Kiss is - unfortunately - not one of them.

This is such a powerful and at the time playful album. Adventurous synth and drum machine experimentalism, barebones funk, mixed with occasionally repetitive backbeats and lyrics that leave absolutely no doubt that its creator was horny af. What a fun melange of genres, styles and sounds. An undeniable, a lava-hot classic!

…And yet another outing of British lads unabashedly copying from various styles (Bossa, Jazz, Funk, Soul, …) from all over the world, and the press going nuts about it.

Euphemistically calling it Blue-Eyed Soul. In this instance, the apt way of cataloguing would be “copycats doing what myriads did better”.

Then again, the „originals“ didn’t wear trench coats and hang out pretentiously in Paris cafés while making their music. So naturally the press lost its mind over The Style Council. Some even called it “progressive pop”, as if Paul Weller had somehow invented or meaningfully expanded these genres - which he plainly did not. a blatant case of cultural appropriation masquerading as music journalism.

It’s nothing but an imitation game from start to finish - plus an atrocious take on hip hop. Yet journalists loved it, probably helped along by the fact that the creators were British and white.

Can’t blame Weller though, he was just vibing with great sounds and apparently having a good time, but it’s oh so unsatisfying that this record gets praise for… well, for what exactly?

Well, My Ever Changing Moods is a great song. + 1 for that one.

While I am not particularly passionate about the White Stripes, I always enjoyed Get Behind Me Satan a lot. It’s way more restrained (in a good way), mature, cohesive and ahem… “experimental” (in a non-experimental way I guess) than what they had done before. These songs are given time to develop, and many of them are built around stirring motifs.

Meg White’s drumming has never made more sense to me than on this record - it’s just fantastic, and the album wouldn’t work the same without her sparse backdrop, which allows the melodies and guitar licks to shine. I just love how intuitive her drumming is. Their symbiosis on this one - I think - is complete.

Unfortunately though, they lose a bit of this momentum on the record’s B-side, where the songs tend to blend into each other.

It's weird how nostalgia can be a key factor in determining whether you enjoy an album or not. Within the first seconds of “Around the World,” I am immediately drawn back to one particular warm and lazy summer when I was in my early teens. All my friends were away on holiday; I spent my days lying in the grass or biking around the neighbourhood, beginning to dig deeper into music and hanging around in our smalltown record store. Time did not seem to pass at all; the days blended into each other, and for the last time in my life I felt free of responsibilities (or, to put it more drastically, I was bored in the most positive sense — a state of boredom that cannot be replicated when you're an adult and your mental load tends to be so overwhelming that you count the days until your next day off). Californication soundtracked a lot of these days.

In short, this album gives me a feeling that's impossible to describe in just a few words (and, most importantly, a - positive - feeling that I will most likely never be able to revisit, even though it is a state of mind I thoroughly long to be in again). Reminds me of the good old madeleine that drew Proust into a swirl of memories thought to be lost to time.

Is Californication a great album? Nah, I don't really think so; not at all. It has so many duds (mostly the lyrics and/or the boilerplate drumming + guitar playing), and its runtime should have been generously trimmed (oh, the ’90s / they could have cut more than half of the tracks on the second side), but still, Californication is an album where profound criticism would feel out of place for me. Because I like it for reasons other than the quality (or lack thereof) of its songs. Of course, Flea's bass playing and Kiedis's idiosyncratic vocal style mayke this fun to listen to listen to.

I cannot recall listening to the record with the utmost attention back then (especially since my English, as a non-native speaker, was terrible at the time and I understood onyl a few words at best), so I was pretty surprised that even the most remote details felt familiar when I put it on today.

Long-term memory… you fascinating phenomenon. It seems I know Californication's first half "better" than some of the records I actually call my favorite albums of all time. Haha.

At first, I had a hard time understanding why this record is on this list (mainly because I forgot about this band). But then I realized it’s (again) about a white man playing guitar like many great Black musicians before him. But because he is white - and British - he gets a lot of accolades. And yeah, Jeff Beck was a brilliant guitarist, no doubt, and some songs on here are actually worth revisiting. But it’s oh so dissatisfying to read all the critics praise of his style without ever seeing one mentioning his “influences” (aka the musicians he “burrowed” from).

Back in the days of good ol' indie Y2K yore, listening to Merriweather Post Pavilion for the first time completely rewired my brain. For better or worse, I can't say. But ever since, there's been a clear "before" and "after" MPP for me.

If this isn’t a 5, what is? The teeth of time have done nothing (and by that I mean: absolutely nothing) to this album. It's an undeniable, an unf*#%withable classic! Sublime poetry, electrifying perfomances, standout songwriting (plus, the cover portrait is nothing short of iconic). These songs hold up effortlessly today - and they’ll still hold up 50 years from now. This album is such a towering achievement that it overshadowed many of Patti Smith’s later albums. If you create something this profound, this singular, this lasting… well, that’s just the way it goes… I guess.

Certainly wasn’t expecting to see a Grind recording here. Given how groundbreaking this was, it’s a good choice to include Scum (even if their follow-up album is even better, hands down). Also, Scum hits hard; full of earth-shattering drumming and riffs. An essential album, for sure. But what puzzles me more than to see a grind recording pop up, however, is that the editors bothered to include an example of (such) extreme music at all. I am pretty sure this will be the only inclusion of its genre here - so I ask myself, why include genres that are so extreme yet so diverse and sprawling that any list of this caliber will always be more than incomplete and far from representative? But let’s put that criticism aside for a second and let this absolute monster of ferocity and velocity wash over you (sonically).

I love a lot of Muse's many influences. However, the way they channel them leaves absolutely no room for creating their own voice (just listen to the Depeche Mode-esque “Map of the Problematique” besides of all the obvious Radiohead influences). Muse often sound like “X and Y” copycats who put an arpeggiated synth on every chorus; way too often homage tips into imitation.

Besides, a lot of those tracks are … boring? That may sound harsh, but it’s the predominant reaction I have when trying to sit through the album from start to finish. While Bellamy’s high register is impressive, but he seldomly leaves it. They greatest craft starts to wear if you are being exposed to it for 50 minutes straight.

When I was a teenager in the early 2000s, just beginning to immerse myself in music, Muse were everywhere. I even saw them live (pardon me, what an atrocious kitsch). For years, I tried to find my way into their world, to hear what so many others clearly do. But I suspect I’m more than ready to close that chapter. A shame - because on paper, this band could work for me.

Also the cover… Storm Thorgeson artworks are often hit or miss. This is a miss. Big time.

It's a blisteringly cold day here in central Europe, and lyrics like "like the sunshine warms the sands" make me yearn for this nasty winter to be over even more. Listening to this record, it’s hard not to drift off to warmer places. This would make a fine recommendation for listeners who are just beginning to explore the psychedelic folk sounds of the late 1960s and who have already worked their way through the classics. Songs like “Sunlight” and “Double Sunlight” sound like California set to music, all sun-bleached harmonies and gentle, drifting melodies (you can really tell that the band relocated from New York to California prior to the recording sessions). But even though the songwriting and the instrumentation are versatile, not many songs here truly stick with me. It is a record for connoisseurs who enjoy digging a little deeper, yet still a pleasant listen for everyone else — an album with few peaks and virtually no lows.

By far less obnoxious or terrible than their debut, the Eagle's Hotel California has some decent melodies and a few ideas that almost work (omg, did I really write down these words?). I don't fully "love" a single track, but New Kid in Town has a mildly (and suspiciously) soothing effect on my psyche today (a grey, f*#king freezing cold day somewhere in Europe). For every New Kid in Town, however, there is a Life in the Fast Lane or Victim of Love, which trigger my fingers to hit the skip button immediately. I'm glad I finally sat through Hotel Californa, because now I can be reasonably certain I'll never have to do it again. I'm honestly surprised that this is considered such a gem, because for most of its runtime (which isn't even thaaaat long), it's actually… quite boring.

Wow… no!

The first half goes down as smoothly as saccharine sliding down my throat. Long on my „Need to check out” list, this generator finally did me the favor of listening to a Shuggie Otis record in full. And what can I say – there is some incredible stuff on Inspiration Information. The beat is super tight; and man, do the choruses hit hard.

Which brings me to my main point of criticism. Aside from the closer, Not Available, the instrumentals that make up side two don’t do much for me (they sound a bit like filler material meant to make this a proper album length). I love the odd Happy House, but after that I couldn’t connect much with the songs anymore.

But I mean, to have such a great side A alone is well worth your time. I will surely revisit this often. And wait, did Shuggie Otis play most of the instruments himself? I guess in this instance you can really tell that talent runs deep in the family.

Judging from the selection of records from the 2000s onwards that I have listened to so far, the creators of this list do not seem to have been particularly in touch with the pulse of the time - if at all. More than half of the selections from this period feel like odd ones out. Unfortunately, “odd one out” not in the sense of “this record flew under the radar at the time but gradually gained a cult following and is now considered a classic,” but rather in the sense of “wow, it’s surprising that someone even remembers this record, because it was never especially great and time has not been kind to it.”

Most of the post-2000 album selections appear to have been included primarily because they carry a nostalgic appeal and; this is my slightly mean interpretation; because they echo the beloved classics the writers actually knew and loved. Our Aim Is To Satisfy is no exception: While it enriches the mid-90s Trip-Hop formula with slightly punchier electronics, later house-style vocal sampling (and perhaps very subtle jazz flourishes), the overall sound is far from revelatory. After all, this slick blend of acoustic and electronic elements, coupled with an overtly “night-time” aesthetic, was omnipresent around the turn of the millennium. (Thievery Corporation - while I personally do not enjoy their work - would arguably have been the more logical representative of this style.)

Our Aim Is To Satisfy is a decent album (it was released on Warp, after all), and I do not regret listening to it, but I struggle to see any compelling reason for its inclusion here. Given the recent resurgence of Trip-Hop within left-field niches, including Red Snapper does carry a certain charm. However, there were many more successful - and frankly, better - acts and albums that could have been chosen instead.

I find it hard to write something profound about an album that means a lot to me. So I’m just going to stick with this: Heaven or Las Vegas means a lot to me.

Smart songwriting, killer drum programming, occasionally fun lyrics (Survivor) & immaculate vocal performances: should be clear indicators for a strong album. As a child of the early 90s, I grew up with those slick RnB productions from the turn of the millennium blasting from the radio and on repeat on MTV. Not seldomly you tend to look back with a touch of nostalgia looking back at the sound of your youth. But I was never down for the RnB sound of the oughts and I oftentimes asked myself why I never even enjoyed the hits. As the years passed and I keep on revisiting a record from this period once in a while, I figured that it’s mostly the production. To my ears it sounds like plastic and high gloss, and it’s way too much bling for me. In a way I would compare the production to the early use of CGI effects in cinema, which in retrospect looks so damn cheap and unconvincing. Those Midi stabs of classical instruments are downright obnoxious (Sexy Daddy). How I wish, they they went full electronic and consequently synthesized tones (not that imitation style or the way Perfect Man sounds) or used real instrumentation. That would have really elevated the sound and probably made it more lasting (Independent Women Pt. II would be an example where the instrumental is just great). I mean yeah, it was the time, but It’s a shame, because the songs are crafted well and the drum programming influenced by the push and pull dynamics of those brilliant drummers from the 60s and 70s is iconic and super influential. And yeah, the lyrics are sometimes cringey, I know. But then again, there is so much hard and glam rock in this configurator (which is hands down, the worst genre of all time when words mean anything to you). Also the record is waaaaay to long, if you’re not 100% into that kind of stuff. Is Happy Face are foreshadow of Beyoncé’s latest excursion into country?

For all of these 60+ minutes, Moby sits between chairs. He does not reach the professor-like, sample-mania genius of DJ Shadow; his uptempo songs are light years from being as fun as Fatboy Slim’s Big Beat exuberance; and, finally, his attempts at ambient are ultra-sterile and lack what makes the best ambient recordings sublime. Also, it’s puzzling to read that this album was seen as having brought techno (elements) into the mainstream. (Post-)rave culture? Maaaaybe. But especially the hit singles and the album’s first half are a far cry from techno’s primal, pounding energy, the rawness, and sweaty basements. The closest Play gets to that basement feel is when Moby lets his punk influences take over.

That being said, Play is not always terrible. Brief samples, added MIDI instrumentation, and programmed drums: these are the ingredients for Moby’s mega-blockbuster. And occasionally, it turns out, this is enough to produce a handful of gems (or, let’s not exaggerate: some solid ideas). But whenever you have a great song such as South Side, it is instantly followed by missteps such as Bodyrock. If he had only reduced the bloat to an EP - or at least to half the runtime…

Most songs on Play feel like a compromise: by throwing so many styles together, Play does not transcend them; the result is sometimes even less than the sum of its parts. However, I’m not surprised that Play was a major success. It’s oftentimes the case that when an artist takes elements of a beloved subculture sound and bloats them with radio-friendly aspects, they become bound for the mainstream. Easy to listen to, yet still offering some “exotic” vibes in small and digestible doses. A problem that I have with a lot of chart-topping recordings from the late 1990s and 2000s. I get why people love the all-over-the-place-ness and the melodic dopamine rushes… but I’m not sold. Though the ad industry couldn’t have asked for more, it seems.