lukazimir_

4.5/5. If I had one word to describe this album it would be “big.” Songs like “The Working Hour” or opener “Shout” move with such a sense of gravity and drama that it feels utterly massive when listening to them. A lot of that is owed to the co-vocalists who give these songs their all, plus Tears for Fears are one of the 80’s synth bands who’s synth tone actually sounds good, so despite being very 1980’s it holds up extremely well today in most regards. It also just helps that the tracklist on this thing is stacked with amazing songs like the two previously mentioned or “everybody wants to rule the world” or even “Head Over Heels.” Really just one of the best pop records of its time.

3/5. the opening title track is of course one of the most iconic songs of the 20th century, to the extent that for a long while there were entire communities dedicated to interpreting its lyrics which recount the history of rock music through the 1960’s. However that opening title track kinda dooms the rest of the album as it completely overshadows everything else here except for maybe “Vincent” which I really love the vocal melodies on. The rest is just fairly normal folk music for the era, though McLeans voice is at least quite nice to listen to all throughout.

4/5. It’s crazy how long ago the “brat summer” of 2024 already feels. Almost seems like it was part of a different world at this point despite only being two years ago. This album was inescapable at the time, that specific shade of green and that specific font were everywhere online. Which in my opinion, it was nice to see Charli finally get her mainstream flowers as she’s been one of the more interesting figures in pop music for a while now.

And Brat itself is a very good pop album, it blends together hyper-pop, electronic and that kinda trashy blend of 2000’s dance music. It’s often very playful whether that be on bangers like “club classics” or “Von Dutch” but is also not afraid to be more sincere when it matters like on “Sympathy is a Knife” or the Sophie tribute “So I.” The whole record also just flows extremely well, it feels like listening to a really good DJ set. Brat absolutely deserved the hype.

3/5. In the grand scheme of all live albums, this one is just fine. Though I will admit part of that is the fact that The Who is a pretty major musical blind spot for me so I am not the most familiar or attached to the material being performed here. But as it is, the performances are good as is the recording quality and if you are a big Who fan this will most likely be right up your alley, but for me it just was what it was.

3/5. An album that made basically no splash upon its release, American Gothic only started getting critical attention and reevaluation in retrospect. You get a blend of folk, rock, blues, and vaudeville-esque showtunes here, and it all totals out to be perfectly fine. I think that part of the reason that this album failed to hit upon release is just that it came out in a sea of much better singer-songwriters, so anyone who would have been interested in this album at the time simply had better options. it’s not bad though I quite liked “Midnight Carousel” and the title track.