Reviews by littlestlassloves

About 2 minutes into track one I was thinking the rhythm was really pretty and atmospheric. By minute 4 I was losing patience. By minute 6 it had completely lost me. And that's basically how the rest of the album went.

I assume that the repetitive melody patterns are a traditional Senegalese music thing, but it's just not for me. Or rather I'd have been able to appreciate it more had each song been half the length. It's also no fault of the artist obviously, but I'm finding I generally appreciate albums more if I understand the lyrics (my attempts to find English translations on the internet failed).

I certainly didn't hate it, but I didn't like it either.

2/5

I think I heard more n-words during this album listen than I've heard in the last year. And I was not expecting the extended Biggie having a shag skit. The rampant misogyny was less surprising.

It's not like I automatically rule out sexist lyricism (Sublime were hardly angels and I love them) but the music has to be good and it was all a bit meh for me. This style of hip hop not my thing.

This album really suffers from having Superstition on it, because frankly what album wouldn't - that's as near a perfect track as it's possible to get.

I would have absolutely loved Maybe Your Baby if it cut the number of repetitions of "maybe your baby" in the last 3rd of the track by about 50% (we get it!). You And I having the theremin-like synth on it seemed like an odd choice for a fairly schmaltzy ballad. It did set it apart from the various other schmaltzy ballads though.

I like funky Stevie Wonder much better than ballad Stevie Wonder, but it's hard to deny the talent. I enjoyed this just fine, but a little less than I expected I think.

3/5

An artist where I knew the name, but couldn't remember ever hearing anything by them.

The discordant rhythm of "other voices" was almost uncomfortable to listen to but I liked "i used to" a lot more. "tonite" actually made me audibly laugh. "change your mind" I absolutely hated the guitars on. I found "how do you sleep?" just dull.

I don't know how to rate an album that had tracks I really liked, absolutely hated and thought were meh...

2/5 I guess?

I was so pleased to see this pop up - I bought it on CD when it was released and still listen to it 25 years later. This is such an incredibly accomplished debut album.

The instrumentation is beautiful on all these tracks - haunting and gentle and soaring one minute then slightly discordant and off-kilter the next. Personal favourites are Everybody's Stalking, Once Around The Block (the reason I bought the album in the first place), Magic In The Air, Disillusion, and Bewilderbeast is my favourite of the instrumentals.

My only real negative is that listening to This Song with good headphones is one of the most discombobulating things ever, as it pans between ears. It's a bit like the audio form of standing on a ferry when the sea is a bit choppy.

However, for me this album was always going to be a:

5/5

This sounds dated in a way that many earlier albums the generator has given me don't... but as long as you can get past all the casual misogyny (it was the 80s *shrug*) it's just fun. Personal lyrical favourites include:

"Like Martin Luther King, I will do my thing
I'll say it in a rap 'cause I do not sing"

and

"It's McDaniels, not McDonald's
These rhymes are Darryl's, the burgers are (Ronald's)"

Again bemoaning the lack of a half mark so I'm settling for:

3/5

My first of the many Elvis Costello albums on this list.

The mix on this is weird. If you're wearing headphones at points it sounds like Elvis is shouting directly into your ear drowning out the music.

13 Steps Lead Down is great and I really liked 20% Amnesia because of the slightly off-kilter backing. The backing vocals on This Is Hell are unintentionally hilarious - like he decided to use the worst fake Ringo accent he could conjure up - and it almost wrecks a song I otherwise really liked. My Science Fiction Twin was another track I really enjoyed.

I know Elvis Costello is divisive, as a lot of people hate his voice. I am not one of those people.

4/5

The album version of Street Life (the song) does not need to be 11 minutes long. The single version of Street Life (the song) clocks in at nearer 4 minutes and is excellent. Too much of a good thing.

As for the rest of the album, I listened to it on a warm but breezy walk to work and something about the sun and the fact it's a good walking tempo meant I really enjoyed it. Weirdly though, I listened to it again after work and was far less enthusiastic.

So where that leaves me is at is wanting a 2.5, but being forced into giving a:

2/5

Side note: Amazon Music described The Crusaders as playing "hard bop" which is a frankly excellent genre name.

I find it really hard to have an opinion about Adele's music. She has an astonishing voice and based on the odd video I've seen of her, she seems like a brilliant person who I'd very much like to be friends with. I just don't find her songs very interesting.

I liked the piano that's on a few of the tracks. The songs were all perfectly lovely just not my thing.

3/5

The first few tracks of this had me nervous. Yes it was moody and brooding, but was all a bit samey. But then I got Lovesong, Lullaby and Fascination Street pretty close together and things perked up.

My big complaint, as someone who thinks that most tracks benefit from being max 4 minutes long and who likes Robert Smith's voice, is that you could cut out a lot of the noodling and let Mr Smith sing his little heart out.

I can understand how Cure fans think this is a masterpiece, because it's likely giving them a lot of what they enjoy, but for me its just fine.

3/5

So far the generator has given me 55 albums, three of them have been Bowie and the two before this (Heroes and Blackstar) I gave 1/5. I was starting to think it'd purposely set out to prove my previous assumption that I like Bowie was wrong.

I like the title track a lot despite it being a bit repetitive and long. Love the bass and piano on it. I have always really loved Golden Years too with it's funky guitar and handclaps.

By track 3 (Word on a Wing) it's dawning on me that I have either found a Bowie album I like, or I've now just listened to enough Bowie albums that something has clicked. My Dad had a theory that there was a minimum number of olives you have to eat before you start liking them and maybe this is the audio version of that. I did like the first half better than the first though, so baby steps...

In the absence of half stars:

3/5 (and believe me, no one is more surprised than me)

I like a lot of later Chemical Brothers singles, so I think I was expecting to enjoy this more than I did.

I've ended up with no real strong feelings about it either way, other than the low noise in Three Little Birdies Down Beats that sounded like someone was hammering on the door and made me feel weirdly anxious.

It's the first album in a while that I ended up listening to the morning after because I had a couple of false starts, but I liked the second half better than the first.

3/5

I distinctly remember my Mum telling me as a kid that some of my favourite artists "can't sing", yet she loved Dylan. Life is full of mysteries.

So plus points: Hammond organ (songs are always improved by Hammond organ), the lyrics are often beautiful.

Negative points: the voice (god, the voice), the siren whistle on the title track, most tracks are 20-30% longer than they need to be, Dylan absolutely murdering the harmonica (an instrument that can be great, but not in his hands in my opinion).

I am genuinely baffled that Like A Rolling Stone was at #1 on multiple versions of Rolling Stone's Greatest Songs of All Time. I mean it's a good song, and I get it was influential, but there are so many better but still influential, tracks to listen to.

It's certainly not unlistenable, but I can't imagine returning to it.

2/5

Listening to this the day after Brian Wilson died (along with many others, as the generator pushed relevant albums to people who hadn't already listened to them, a move which honestly made me a little misty-eyed).

There's something about the Beach Boys that scratches that musical itch in my brain. I can't explain it or objectively justify it, it's just something about the vocals and melody that feels *right* to me. It makes me want to smile.

That being said, Smile is certainly not perfect, which given it's history is hardly a shock.

Brian's voice is still really engaging for me, but it's no surprise that it had lost a little spark at this stage in his life. Mind you, Brian Wilson at 75% power was still better than many artists as far as I'm concerned. And I imagine some people's patience will be pushed a bit by songs referencing vegetables or farmyard animals (but as a fan of They Might Be Giants and Barenaked Ladies this feels completely reasonable to me).

The album suffers from having Good Vibrations on it, because its so iconic and (whisper it) a patently better song than the rest, but I'm so glad I got this album today. Frankly, had I been forced to listen to God Only Knows I would have been bawling my eyes out...

Wishing for half stars again (3.5) but in their absence:

4/5

My mind kept wandering while trying to listen to this. I was feeling a bit guilty about not giving it my full attention until I realised that we're just not a compatible pair. I don't mind Suzanne or So Long, Marianne but I don't particularly enjoy the vocals and a lot of the instrumentation felt quite samey between tracks. The weird ear-to-ear wailing and warbling of One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong was the final nail in the coffin.

2/5

Where I like it, I really like it - the first two tracks are great.

But when it's Blue Condition (boring) or Mother's Lament (wtf?) I REALLY don't like it.

I feel like Cream might be a "greatest hits" type artist for me (assuming I get past Clapton being a complete dick and willing to listen to more of him outside of this project).

2/5

It's really surprised me how much it turns out I like funk, and the bits of this record that leaned into that I loved. Love to the People was great for example. On the flip side, Billy Jack outstayed it's welcome by being so melancholy for so long. Jesus's preacher-like vocal wasn't my favourite though I really enjoyed:

"But what He gave us never will die!
He never had a hustlin’ mind
Doin’ crime wastin’ time!
Drinkin’ that wine"

I genuinely adored Curtis Mayfield's voice and I suspect that a different album of his will be something I could really love (I'm assuming it's only a matter of time before album generator gives me a second CM record). This particular album though gets:

2/5 (because 2.5 isn't an option)

With no real Neil Young listening experience, I'm not sure what I expected from this, but I wouldn't have guessed "a bit dull". I didn't dislike it, but I didn't engage with any of it. And I am not a fan of his voice at all.

I think that leaves me on:

2/5

I just think a lot of people in the 70s didn't know how to start and end songs. Intros go on forever with nothing really happening, something mildly interesting happens for a couple of minutes in the middle and then the song sounds like it's done, but no! Surprise fake out! Have another 5 minutes. Urgh.

I think punk started not as a backlash to all the animal noises and ambient bollocks, but just because they wanted to show it was possible to create a fully formed 3 minute long song.

Anyway, I knew I was going to hate this from the first 3 minutes of the 17 minute first track. Either we've been extremely unlucky with the randomness of the generator, or the makers of this book were obsessed with 70s nonsense that feels like it'll never bloody end.

This is nowhere near as unlistenable as some of my previous 1 star albums, but given it actively made me grumpy:

1/5

Billy Joel is an artist I've always assumed I would probably like from the famous songs alone, just never got round to sitting down and listening to an album.

And that turned out to be a good call. I even liked Scenes From an Italian Restaurant despite it being 7 and a half minutes long and featuring a pretty cheesy sax solo or two - parts of it made clear where Ben Folds got some of style of playing piano.

I am definitely going to listen to this again and try to learn to love the sax solos.

4/5