Reviews by lancia037

Never one to back down for a complete stylistic change. It's very much a product of a time, somewhat impressive for someone who already had a 2 decade long career at that point. It's kind of dumb dance music and sort of follows the same style as Ray of Light. Hard not to enjoy it for what it is. American Pie is a goofball cover but it works surprisingly well and notches it up to a positive rating.

Can someone tell them that a Post-Rock album doesn’t have to mean it’s incredibly boring. It doesn’t really respect your time, sometimes things actually happen but it’s too few and far between. Is it bad? Not really, there’s a basis of what could make a for some pleasant songs. It doesn’t really form into one though, go make actual short and concise and enjoyable songs rather than this drawn out and frustrating long winded album. There is a lot of more interesting Post Rock out there that does better at experimenting with the Rock format.

It's Talking Heads and they are doing Funky things. There's a very clear evolution you can hear from their earlier works to this one. Not necessarily better or worse but more different. More influence from Funk and World makes it a bit more of a fun listen for me. Can't really find a fault with this one. I guess the final track just kind of goes on for too long. But other than that, pure bliss.

You'd expect an album like this to have aged very poorly. In a way it has, but it still manages to be a very enjoyable listen. It's the birthplace of many a more modern genres, you can really hear what came to be House on here. It still works as decent dance music on its own, perhaps not something you'd actively put on but it wouldn't be out of place. Pleasant surprise really.

This is a much more enjoyable form of Queen than the popular that followed after. This straight up feels like a Prog Rock album. As much as I'm a sucker for Prog though, this still isn't really it. It still feels a bit unfocused and all over the place. There's a million ideas and they somehow had to all fit on here. The tracks neatly flow into one another but don't share much else. Still, it makes for an entertaining listen and I can't really find much fault in the musicianship here.

Somewhere along the past 800 days I've become a Smiths fan. These albums never fully click on first listen, but they just invite you to listen to it again and again until you really don't want anything else. It's 80's Pop bliss, but not in the cheesy Madonna kind of way. How soon is now is probably my favorite Smiths song and that alone lifts it to a high rating. The rest of the songs are slow burners that gradually seem to grow on me. Goddamn they knew how to write a tune.

Like the previous album I had, it feels a bit inconsequential. This one was quite a good album though. It just gets gradually noisier and crazier as it goes. Struggle to think of any songs that stood out, as one does after 800+ albums. The whole experience was pretty nice however. Dance Punk-esque music that seems very of the era.

It's not as boring as the other xx album, that's one positive. It didn't have the beauty of the other album they have on here either however. I didn't really dislike any part of this, but it feels like such a forgettable and inconsequential release that I find it hard to say much about it. Did it do anything wrong? Did it do anything right? Who listens to this? Have those people ever heard other music?

I have a soft spot for early Beatles It's all kind of overshadowed by their later work, but early British R&B has a lot of nice energy to it. It's filled with a variety of classics and has a great flow to it, despite not really being from the Album era. That said, this particular listen was kind of ruined by the awful Stereo-mixing that pans every instrument and vocal to one side of the speakers. The Mono version that isn't on streaming is a much better way to enjoy this.

What a very mopey sounding album, for a lot of it anyways. I can't really bring myself to dislike it all that much though. It had a bit of variety at times and almost managed to sound not sad at some points. The album doesn't really overstay its welcome with the short runtime either. Antony has a very interesting voice, beautiful and melancholic but also hard to listen to for more than a song. Just a weird listen, but I guess the uniqueness gives it some merit.

Really didn't like this first time around, but it's actually quite good. The album is extremely front loaded, all the bangers are on the first five tracks or so. The album tracks here are all decent, but not really anything to write home about. Still, just having such classic hits right after one another gives it some bragging rights. It kind of represents the downfall of what Metallica would eventually become, but for this release they were still making pretty decent commercial Metal. I guess helping Metal out of the underground isn't all that bad.

I liked the previous Common album I had and this one was good as well. Good lyricism, good flow, and really good beats within. I liked all the classic samples that were put in here, really nice to recognise some old Funkadelic song in a Hip Hop album. I feel it was a bit too long though, well over an hour long. Not really to its detriment as it was still fun to listen to and it didn't feel too long, but it would make me think twice about relistening.

Probably their strongest work. This album almost has elements of Doom Metal to it, with hard pounding yet pretty slow Guitar riffs. It's got some of the big hits and some better deepcuts as well. It's still pretty dumb Aerosmith music at the end of the day, but it does what it sets out to do really well. If you're gonna listen to an Aerosmith album, better be this one.

Godfather of pretty much all African music that got popular in the West. That said, I'm never quite as big of a fan of his work as a lot of other contemporaries of his. The lack of percussion or anything else besides Ali Farka Touré and his guitar makes it a bit of a long sit through. It gets a bit monotonous and I miss my bass and percussion here. Still, he's a master at his instrument and the way he plays guitar is unlike anyone else.

Some good stuff on here, starts off strong but kind of becomes middling as it goes on. By the end it sounded more like Electronic jarble and less like an enjoyable poppy Electronic album. I like it somewhat, even though it is within a genre I don’t usually listen to. Not really enough to actually actively look out for it and revisit it.

This is Otis Redding pretty much summarising what songs the rest of the 60’s would be revolving around. Surprised that all of these songs have multiple other known versions. Otis Reddings iterations stack up really well though, not always my favorite versions but they are all good. He just has such a unique voice and on songs like the opening track it works incredibly well. 60’s soul just had a lot of great releases and this is one of them. Big influence and just a good stand alone album.

For one of the earliest Power Pop album, it really seems to be a slow burner. There's a very gradual build up from more gentle songs and the actual Rock songs don't come in until well until the second half of the album. The slower songs remind me a lot of Tom Verlaine's singing voice, which I like on Television albums but not here. It's Power Pop, but it doesn't quite have enough hit songs on it for it to really enjoy it. Does really sound ahead of the curve though, so their influence is not really in doubt.

This was better than I originally anticipated. Very, VERY 80’s influenced, to a painful degree. Every beat and synth sounds like it wishes it was born in 1983. That said, they do make something enjoyable out of this retro pastiche. The beat is consistently good and some tracks have this almost dance-able energy to them. The tracks where it slows down were a little less interesting, but the overall album was still a good effort. 80’s nostalgia by a band named Hot Chip, didn’t expect to actually like it.

Any album created by an old man from this era is gonna be an interesting listen. I really enjoy Bob Dylan’s vocal performance, he really sounds like he has been through the ringer. A number of good songs on here. That said, I think the lyrical content here is less interesting. A lot of the album focuses on love, out with the surrealistic images he paints on his early albums. It’s well done, but makes for a much less unique and interesting listen. Some songs drag on a bit long as well, especially the final track.

Bit of a less varied version of Fairport Convention. It's decent and all, but does become a bit monotone. The guitar playing is very well done though, always got a soft spot for this 60's acoustic style. Singing is done pretty well as well. There's a lot more where this came from, 60's Folk is not a particularly underrepresented genre here.