Reviews by lostizalith

it's music

mostly pleasant and unremarkable except sometimes the soft-spoken vocals become like nails on a chalkboard. people who care a lot about having Good Taste™ or presenting themselves as such hype the fuck out of this band and it feels like a bit of an emperor's new clothes situation to me. maybe their earlier work is better but i'm not that eager to check it out.

simply a good time

"i didn't HATE this album, but..." (<- bad sign)

it's fine. there were a couple tracks i liked more than the others but not enough to remember which ones. and not enough to listen again.

would be interesting if it weren't so dull. would at least be pleasant background music if it weren't so unexpectedly abrasive. a better album would make that whiplash work. here it just feels like the worst of both worlds. the titular sample in particular is just really annoying.

maybe it just hit me in the wrong mood.

it's a grower! wasn't feeling it at first but ended up listening to it on repeat all night (while playing morrowind - pretty well suited vibes). a bit corny and twee for sure but it works for me. not sure if i love or hate greenman.

highlights: river of orchids, i'd like that, easter theatre, greenman (?), your dictionary, fruit nut, the last balloon

listened to the extended '95 release. i liked this well enough but as with most live albums, this is probably essential listening for a big The Who fan but not for anyone else.

highlights: young man blues, a quick one while he's away, shakin' all over, my generation, magic bus

started strong with the first two tracks and then mostly lost me. scenes from an italian restaurant is boomer slop. i always thought i liked "only the good die young" but apparently i never paid attention to the lyrics, or maybe i only ever heard the chorus. i mean stick it to the catholic church for sure but maybe not just to pressure some girl into fucking you. get it right the first time is corny as fuck but fun. many skippable ballads

highlights: movin' on, the stranger, vienna, get it right the first time

i don't think he should have been within 500 feet of a high school hop. really going crazy on the piano though. i was going to give this 2 stars but all the crusty white boomers slobbering over it in the youtube comments have forced my hand

you know what it is

nothing but respect for ms. mitchell but this album isn't doing much for me. pleasant music, lovely vocals, well-written if a bit quaint and sometimes corny lyrics, in one ear and out the other

highlights: help me, car on a hill, raised on robbery, trouble child

the good here is very good, some genuine classics, but it's about half filler. i might have been more impressed if it weren't so prestigious but the curse of high expectations had me feeling a bit underwhelmed. definitely deserves its place on the list for cultural importance but i probably won't listen to the full thing again

highlights: spanish castle magic, little wing, if 6 was 9, castles made of sand, one rainy wish, bold as love. no surprises here

would be an easy 3.5 if we could do half stars

YUPPPPPPPP

great!

not even his best album!

i have little patience for straight man divorce music but this is such a spectacularly melodramatic work of divorcedness i can't help but be fascinated by it. also the music itself is very good, no surprise there. the album art has me cracking up in disbelief every time i look at it. a real piece of work.

of course it's all fun and games and until you read more about how gaye treated the women and girls in his life and it all gets a little too real. can't in good conscience give this more than a 3 but it certainly is something to behold.

i had never listened to steely dan and just assumed they were one of those bands who are really lame but whom some people insist are "good, actually" just for the sake of being contrarian. turns out they are pretty good, actually!

highlights: bodhisattva, the boston rag, king of the world, maybe more if i listened to it again but my power went out

a couple of great songs, a few good songs, one of the worst songs i've ever heard (she's out of my life), and the rest is filler. theres a kind of insubstantial sound to this album as a whole, even on the good tracks. never been a huge mj fan outside of the big hits but he's always been an interesting figure to say the least. reading about him always leaves me with something new to feel sick and sad about. listening to this album while doing so had me feeling weird

already like this better than the last neil young album i got (everybody knows...). much more consistent, much better production quality. lyrics are generally less cringey (when you dance, i can really love is a notable exception but the song is still good). truly lovely harmonies throughout -- i could take or leave young's voice on its own but it really shines with others. southern man rules.

highlights: only love can break your heart, southern man, don't let it bring you down, birds, when you dance

still too many forgettable tracks to justify a 4 star rating but it's a much more solid 3. maybe 3.5. bonus points for pissing off lynyrd skynyrd.

#first time listening

very late aughts-early teens adult alternative radio. music for guys who say they like "anything but rap and country" but all they listen to is bands that sound like this. white dad on the brink of divorce blasting this in his prius in 2009. generally pleasant and inoffensive but it's not for me. not in 2026.

one of those tricky cases where nothing on the album is really "bad" and i kind of feel like a dick giving it a 2. but i resented having to listen to it when i could have been listening to anything else and it felt like it just kept going on and on and on. 2 stars because it made 54 minutes feel like 2 hours.

#first time listening

finally got an album i've never heard of in my life! wasn't expecting much and was very pleasantly surprised. just a little corny in a way that really works for me. when they started talking about fantastic prisms in the magic hollow and shit that's when i knew for sure it was a 4 star album. it's also like the platonic ideal of summer music.

highlights: are you happy, only dreaming now, nine pound hammer, magic hollow, the wolf of velvet fortune (SWIFTLY!), old kentucky home (fun little satirical number)