Reviews by linkyboy

I got “Birth of the Cool” yesterday! I don’t really know how to rate jazz albums, but I liked this one more, so I’m giving it 4 stars. I don’t know that I would have done that if I’d gotten this one first.

EDIT: I've been thinking about this rating for several months now. I got "Ellington at Newport" the next day, which I liked so much more. Taking that into consideration, alongside the fact that Davis was a shitty person, I'm downgrading "Kind of Blue" to 3 stars.

I never feel “qualified” to judge jazz albums—it’s just not a language that I speak. This sounds good, and I had an easy time listening to it. I also didn’t THINK much about it as I listened to it because I don’t speak the language. It quickly fades in the background. Perfect for sipping whiskey in the company of a small crowd, swapping stories, using big words. But I don’t think I can really compare this to the pop music on this list.

I think context matters a lot with this one. I don’t LOVE the B-52s, but I’ve always appreciated their willingness to be different, to be silly and kitschy. They’re one of those bands that no one else sounds like. They were at times trite, at other times punk, and while the music they would release on later albums was often better, this album is certainly a one-of-a-kind introduction. The band was co-ed, and queer, and fun!

I think taking all these things into consideration, I’d give it 3.5/5, which I’ll round up to a 4.

From the first notes plucked on the guitar at the start of the album, I was sure this was going to be right up my alley.

But instead, I found a plodding album, that does too little and too much all at once. The string and flute overdubs are too saccharine and Nico sounds detached from the songs she sings. I feel like the bones of this album are alright, but the whole is worse than the sum of its parts.

I’ve never quite gotten the hype around U2, despite them being a massive band, but I figured that part of the problem was my lack of familiarity with their discography. For this reason, I was eager to give this album a shot.

I’m trying not to judge U2 too harshly, but look at “Achtung Baby” like I would any other album by an artist unfamiliar with. Ultimately, I just feel that this album is a moderately interesting wash of reverb that simply doesn’t do much for me. “Mysterious Ways” is the only song that I really like, and it’s also the hookiest.

A fun listen, certainly—I’ve been getting into synths recently, and it sounds like the kind of music I make when I’m playing around in my DAW, so I can relate. It’s also got perhaps the most 1990 album cover I’ve ever seen (and I say this derogatorily). Some nice use of samples, and “Groove is in the Heart” is a fun track to this day.

Having said that, I didn’t feel that anything was ground breaking. I’m giving it 3 stars, not because it was bad, but because I truly feel fairly neutral about it.

There were some great moments on this album, including the opening track (though the mix was rather garbled) and “Run Charlie Run.” I appreciate a band taking a political stance in their music.

With that said, it doesn’t feel super cohesive as an album. And though it was well-performed, none of the songs were too memorable for me. I also am not crazy about “Papa Was A Rolling Stone,” and it takes up a third of the runtime.

When I was in high school, I was really into the classic rock bands, like Led Zeppelin and The Who. I was convinced that I had superior taste because of it. One of my best friends was very into Destiny’s Child, and I used to poke fun at him for the commercial, girly drivel he was listening to.

I feel so embarrassed for my younger self. It was a reflection of internalized sexism, a belief that this music was inherently unserious, simply because it wasn’t made for straight, white men.

Thankfully, I outgrew that mindset. So many people on this site clearly haven’t, and I think that’s a shame.

This is a good album. It’s not the sort of thing that I am apt to listen to, and that’s okay. Sometimes music just might not be FOR you. That doesn’t make it trash.

This was quite an interesting diversion! While it’s not necessarily music I want to listen to again, it was certainly well done and it definitely belongs on this list.

I’m going to give it a respectable 3 stars, mainly because it just didn’t connect to me. But I appreciate that it was something different than what I’m used to, and I can see why some people would connect with it.

What some may call the unstoppable momentum of the band, I see as sloppiness—it reminds me of the way my middle school band performed. Constantly moving at a faster pace, failing to rhythmically lock in as a unit. It’s too bad—there are things that I like here: there are some fun, melodic basslines, underlined by the bassist’s inconsistency; the guitarist has some memorable riffs, but their guitar tone grows uninteresting with each subsequent song; there are a few great vocal moments, but they are fleeting.

The last track is torturously long.

Interesting tidbit from Darby Crash’s Wikipedia page: “When the Germs initially formed, the only member who was proficient with an instrument was . . . Pat Smear.” That is what it sounded like. Also, didn’t realize the guitarist was Pat Smear from Nirvana/Foo Fighters! Cool that the drummer and bassist were women.

Does it deserve to be on the list? Probably, if it is considered the first “hardcore punk” album. But I think its quality might have been overrated by the people who had seen their chaotic, cacophonous performances.

Mott the Hoople, on the brink of extinction, were revivified by David Bowie when he wrote “All the Young Dudes” for them, which remains their best song. The band then took that newfound success and channeled it into a lackluster career of second-rate Bowie impersonation.

Is “Mott” a bad album? No. But it’s generally uninspired. When “Violence” started playing, I was certain I’d already heard it. Turns out they just lifted and transposed the opening riff of “Whizz Kid,” from only three tracks earlier. “Honaloochie Boogie” is my favorite of the batch, and perhaps the most musically similar to “All the Young Dudes.”

As if reading my mind, Apple Music started playing “Modern Love” by David Bowie at the conclusion of the album, as if to say, “This is what you REALLY were looking for.”

I started and stopped this album many times. Once I finally got to ripping the band aid off, it felt like the album would never end.

Most of these songs do not feel written so much as “worked out.” Like Frank Black found a chord progression and then kind of devised lyrics on top of it. Nothing offends my earbuds, per se, but very little actually appealed to me.

The album’s saving grace is its production, which makes it pretty listenable. In fact, I liked it best when I stopped listening to the album and just heard it in the background of whatever else I was doing.

I listened to this album twice, because I wanted to give it a 4, but I felt like it was a 3. On re-listen, I realized what was creating this dissonance: the first half of the album is fairly mediocre, in my opinion—some interesting musical ideas, but the songs feel underwritten. Then you get to “Stop Your Sobbing” at track 7 (!), and it feels like a whole new album has started! More memorable melodies, more varied arrangements, and stronger songs all around. If the album were just the second half, it would have been an easy 4 stars. But unfortunately, it’s hampered by the weaker first half.

Pleasant, but fairly unremarkable indie pop. Inoffensive, but uninspiring. I did find the interesting modulations on “Norway” to be pretty interesting, and the first track was a promising start, but I ultimately found this to be a fairly run-of-the-mill album. Not sure that I would include it on this list, especially when other great contemporaries are absent (“For Emma, Forever Ago” or “Modern Vampires of the City” come to mind as more consequential and inventive albums from around the same time).

I’ve been vacillating between 2 or 3 stars, and think I’ll settle on 3 as I can see this being an album I put on when I want to calm myself, so that’s worth something.

Has anyone ever sung the word “Motherfucker” so beautifully?

I’ve been catching up on albums that I missed when I took a break from this project. When I saw the news of D’Angelo’s passing, I knew it was time to give “Brown Sugar” its listen.

What a treat this album is! Cohesive, yet eclectic. Consistent, yet always interesting. “Cruisin’” is the platonic ideal for a cover song: D’Angelo made his own while staying faithful to the original. The fact that he produced, wrote, and played most of the instruments on this record is astounding.

Rest in Peace D’Angelo, a talent taken too soon!

I appreciate this album’s inclusion, and am glad to have listened to it. I like the grooves and the sparse, call-and-response melodies. And yet, it’s quite long and repetitive, seeming more like attending a jam-band’s concert than listening to a well-conceived album. So, though the album is interesting, I don’t think I’ll be listening to it again.

The best thing about the White Stripes is that they weren’t afraid to sound sloppy—extra notable because the 2000s was probably the most “polished” sounding decade for popular music. They would come out of the gate with music that was loud, manic, and really rocked, making them one of the last truly huge rock bands. And “Elephant” certainly has cemented its place in the canon of great rock albums, largely thanks to its lead single, “Seven Nation Army,” which features a guitar riff so iconic, it feels crazy that it hadn’t already been written.

Jack White’s vocals and guitar work always feel like a clear homage to Led Zeppelin, but nevertheless, he and Meg always manage to be their own thing.

Now, as for my rating, I was planning to give it 4 stars, but I didn’t know why. In fact, I must admit that this is a better album than some I’ve given 5 stars to. So I gave it a second listen, and I think considering the pacing, the variety, and the special thing this was upon its release, I’m giving it the full 5.

I have established my distaste for the hyper-machismo, play-acted bravado, and contrived darkness of a lot of metal music. This album contains some of that, although tempers itself at times. Where it is most successful is in its more melodic, poppy songs—like “Living After Midnight,” which almost feels out of place among the chug-chug postulations on the rest of the album. I guess I prefer my heavy metal closer to Def Leppard than Black Sabbath, and this fits somewhere in between.

I loved this from the opening track, “Instant Hit.” It was so not what I was expecting, but so fun, distinctive, bizarre, and imaginative. Their sound is a unique amalgamation of Talking Heads, The Cranberries, The Sugarcubes, and The Police. Or like The Shaggs if they were actually good.

I feel like half the people in the reviews didn’t actually listen to this album. They talk like all punk music sounds the same. That’s bullshit. Punk has got to be one of the most varied subgenres of rock. I guess I can see not liking this, but it’s unfair to say they “lacked musicianship” or were just making noise—that is clearly not true.

But as T-Swift once said, the haters gonna hate. I loved this album, and their cover of “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” is better than the CCR version (and I love CCR).

This album gets bonus points on its sheer impact: perhaps more than any other album, it made hip hop the biggest movement in popular music since rock and roll.

It suffers a bit from the “Seinfeld Isn’t Funny” trope: everything Run-DMC did well was done better by someone else later on—but those artists were standing on the shoulders of artists like Run-DMC. The bridging of rock with rap was a masterstroke, and their “Walk This Way” cover/collaboration remains iconic.

A great album that certainly deserves its place on this list.