Reviews by kuvien

This album is a beacon and a buoy, and you, in the dark yet glimmering waters, are invited to swim around it, explore it, enjoy it, and immerse yourself in its ocean. This album is the elf who stares back at you through your own eyes when you look in the mirror late at night, when you need sleep but cannot find it. This album is an airstrike on the finest day you've ever seen.

pretty good in spots

Instant hate. What the fuck is wrong with you, 1001 guy?

Ms. Joplin just couldn’t live long enough to see her second album released. Talk about a rise and crash! Well, what about this one? A lot of convincing covers and a couple originals, including the silly a cappella ditty, “Mercedes Benz”. I actually think she’s got the best “Me and Bobby McGee” out there, too. What haunts me about this album is that one of the tracks is an instrumental because Janis died before she could record the vocals. So they just kept it as-is, a testament to her untimely death.

This short album dripping with depression is a metaphor for Drake’s short life, not even living long enough to reach the 27 Club. Other people see the sun shining, but he sees only the moon. I guess that sentiment can be taken as evidence of his depression, but perhaps he’s singing of hope in the face of such looming darkness. I think he evokes cathartic feelings within his listeners without himself being depressed in the moment of recording the music. After all, he follows themes of flight and finding the right road, both common themes of hope.

There are many things Dolly does in her music that I’d not forgive in others, because others aren’t Dolly. Her wide-eyed optimism and her super-sweet music suits her wholesome nature, but this album isn’t all tiptoeing through the tulips: she brings some of that sassy country storytelling, too, especially when she complains about her mother stealing her boyfriend!

Four of the nine tracks on this album are Traditionals, and I’d not be surprised to learn they’re Child Ballads. It’s what was all the rage for folk singers in the 60s and 70s. The female vocals are just magical. There’s mystery here, too, with the religious invocations. Overall this album is one of pastoral narratives of delicate beauty despite the dark themes woven throughout. And the whole idea of a “true love” seems to have always been immortalized in song, hasn’t it?

Setting aside all the profound sociopolitical circumstances out of which this album arose, this music is deep funk, so deep Sly can yodel and make it work, make it as black as the space that cowboy is floating in, so deep you can just fall into it and never stop falling. Amazing stuff.

It's funny how robots used to be thought of as these physical creations with dead-giveaway mechanical voices, when in reality robots are "bots", unseen software that often fools people into thinking they are fellow humans. The robots are smarter than we gave them credit for, their takeover more insidious and complete. Robots have evolved beyond our anthropomorphic conceit. That's okay, though, because we still think of space as this super-interesting place where cosmic winds of music push our ships along, where our spacemen can float.

Already? But we just did it!

It's always refreshing when a young band has gained the confidence and experience to no longer cover songs on their studio albums. Happened with the Beatles etc, and this is Yes' moment, three albums into their career. This album benefits from the extended collaboration of the band members, especially with the breath of fresh air from Howe, eclectic in his playing style, such as when he wields the Portuguese guitar.

Tranquilize yourself with music and escape the ennui of your safe, boring life. Lace up your boxing gloves and go three rounds in the perennial Battle of the Sexes. And when you’re weary of all that, indulge in a meandering, digressive meditation on what you’ve got and almost lost, and how desperately you want to go back home—a blues theme as old as the hills. As old as your desire. “Flight 505” is the groovy, wonderful fruition of that long pent-up need.

People listen to this?

Although Elton and Bernie’s collaboration produced many great albums and many excellent songs across many albums, it is this album where all their production and songwriting strength is brought to bear. For me, this is the Deep Cuts album par excellence. Of course this album has unassailable hits like the title track and “Candle in the Wind”, a song that—like “Yesterday”—is ingrained in pop culture consciousness, but the glue that holds it all together is surprising high quality of the deep cuts. Just listen to “This Song Has No Title”, a throwaway track if there ever was one—but it is? One doesn’t waste such poetic lines as “born on the breeze and die on the wind” on throwaway songs. Or what about the reversed weeping guitar solo on “I’ve Seen That Movie Too”? Brilliant stuff that really sweeps you away. Even the vibraphone and violin on “Sweet Painted Lady” perfectly paints the charming atmosphere of some seaside debauchery. This is without a doubt one of the greatest double albums of all time. So kick back and enjoy Elton at his most beautiful and symphonic and melodious and harmonious, but also enjoy the grit and vinegar sprinkled throughout!

Of course you had a bad trip. What were you thinking giving a boat a man's name?

Remember, kids: when you're listening to silence, you're listening to not-Zappa. Also, the wisdom of Zappa is still appropriate today: steer clear of San Francisco. Loving the police while they kick the shit out of you is an activity that has aged like wine. And if you don't have an Indian in your group, get one! What is wrong with you? Welcome the Dance Hall of Chopped-Up-Cabbage Music... doo wop doo wop. You need a makeover! The palimpsest of sound that is called an album speaks one eternal truth to me: hippies suck in every galaxy.

“Violence, violence.” Sung in the least violent way possible, with music you might hear at a genteel high tea. I’d like to try eating a scone with non-smudge lipstick.

Aged like milk.

I adore “Venus as a Boy”, such a charming, wonderful, slightly freaky tune with lush strings to make it all better. This album indulges as much in the pounding club beats as it explores the more delicate side of Björk, liquid harp and all. I just can’t enough of Björk’s quirky, breathy, sometimes husky and cracked vocals. I might be overthinking this, but I feel like this album is a struggle between the ephemeral and the eternal, the pleasure-seeking of the nightlife and the object of its search: a lasting love.

Nirvana playing fan favorites and tracks off their next album, with some fun covers, all done on a sliding spectrum of "unplugged".