Reviews by lukazimir_

2/5. There’s always seemed to be a general consensus that the Beatles fourth album “Beatles for Sale” is their worst main album. Though it still ranks low for me I’ve always disagreed with that notion, for me this album (With the Beatles) is handily their weakest batch of songs. There are a few highlights to be found like “Till There was you” or “all my loving” but for the most part this is a pretty rough track-list both in terms of originals and covers (look at their cover of “Roll over Beethoven” as an example.) In terms of early boy-band era Beatles stuff I’d take “Please Please Me”, “Hard Days Night” and even “Beatles for Sale” over this one without a second thought. It feels wrong to rate an album by the Beatles so low, but I’ve just never liked this one in particular very much.

4/5. One of the essential early indie-rock albums. You can trace most of the indie/slacker bands of the 90’s back to this album to some extent. And outside of influence the songs are just rock solid all throughout. The guitar riffs are all simple yet infectiously fun and the vocals have a charming laziness to them. Ton of bangers to be found here whether that be “SludgeFeast” or “In a Jar” or even the bonus track cover of the Cures “Just Like Heaven.”

3/5. One of the weaker 70’s Bowie albums in my opinion. Bowie himself called the style of this album “Plastic Soul” and that is an apt description. It is a genuine swing at a soul album done by a man who clearly loved the genre and had a lot of respect for its artists, but it doesn’t stand up to any of the 70’s soul greats nor does it really stand up to Bowies early 70’s glam stuff or late 70’s art-rock stuff. That being said it’s also by no means a bad album, there’s a few standout tracks here like the opener “Young Americans” which are fantastic. John Lennon is also here, as he helped co-write “Fame” and provided backing vocals and guitar work on Bowies cover of “Across the Universe.”

A case where I can see why the album is here, as “Fame” was one of Bowie’s first hits to land in the U.S., but at the same time I’d take most of his other 70’s output over Young Americans any day.

4/5. Quite a good live recording, gets a lot of mileage only using three instruments (piano, bass, drums.) Evan’s piano playing is fantastic all throughout, though credit also needs to be given to Scott LaFaro who plays bass on this album as his bass-lines and bass solos are amazing. highlight for me is probably “Alice in Wonderland”.

2.5/5. Some minimalist indie-pop with a very distinct style of production. Feels very much like an album meant to be heard in headphones. That being said outside of the production, nothing about this one really stood out to me. There’s nothing structurally wrong with it and nothing that offends the senses, but it all just feels like a cloud of fine enough 2000’s indie pop.

3/5. This comparison feels a bit unfair as this album predates most of their discography, but my biggest thought when listening to this record was “this just feels like diet pavement.” That being said this is still a solid record. theres a good handful of fun 90’s indie/slacker rock tunes on here like the opener “Soul and Fire.” Even at a relatively normal 46 minutes though it feels like it overstays its welcome a bit. which is due to the whole thing being quite one-note, there’s not a ton of variety or versatility in the track-list. not a bad album at all, but there’s much better music from this scene and era to explore.

3/5. Some nice ballads with a bit of Cabaret flair at times (especially on the track “Season of Hollow Soul.”) The vocal performances from k.d. are the main highlight here for sure, she gives some great performances here. The instrumental side of things here is what you’d expect from this style but it does a good enough job building up the emotions of the singing. Enjoyed my time with this one well enough, definitely a few highlights I see myself revisiting.

4/5. One of the best indie debuts of the 2000’s, this thing just rips right from the start of opener “the view from the afternoon.” The songs are all simple but have such an energy and oomph to them that they just hit whether that be the bounce of “Dancing Shoes” or the banger “from the ritz to the rubble.” The guitar parts on this album are also all just so fun, the stuff that makes you want to pick your instrument up again. It’s such a good debut that at least in my opinion the band hasn’t topped it even 20 years later.

3/5. Rare case where I’ve never heard of the album or artist at all before going into my record of the day on here which is always exciting. And this one was a solid time! It very much wears its influences on its sleeves, the slacker-rock/alt-country stylings of artists like Silver Jews is all over this thing (though the frontman of this band lacks the lyricism and wit of David Berman.) but there’s some good songs on here that feel appropriate for a lazy morning like “Astonished (In Memphis)” with its laid back guitar outro or the more rocking “Satellite.” Not among the best albums in this style but I was still glad to discover this one.

4/5. When it comes to early (pre 90’s) hip-hop music, it is my belief that Public Enemy are one of the few groups to really still stand the test of time. Part of that is the way their music is produced, both minimal yet punchy and aggressive. The same can be said for the rapping of Chuck D and Flavor Flave, they might not be the most technically insane rappers but they rap with such conviction that it ends up fully working, which is important for songs as politically charged as theirs. And it all comes together to create a ton of bangers like the first main track here “Bring the Noise.” There’s also “She Watch Channel Zero!?” Which samples Slayer’s Angel or Death of all things. Just great listen all around.

2.5/5. My sincerest apologies, but outside of the Queen is Dead I just don’t care for much of anything smiths or Morrissey related. I respect their place in music history and the sheer scale of their influence, but I have never really clicked with them musically nor have I ever particularly liked Morrissey as a vocalist. That being said I did at least like “stop me if you think you’ve heard this one before.”

4/5. Lots of ink has been spilled about this album and its artist Jeff Buckley whose life was cut unfortunately short. Whether that be the beautiful power of a song like “Lover, you should’ve come over” or the decades of discourse over whose version of “Hallelujah” is better between him and Leonard Cohen.

So with so much already said on this album I’ll keep my take simple, which is damn that boy can SING.

2/5. I guess it’s a little interesting that this album (and the groups 1988 debut) were early to the alternative rock scene that would go on to blow up in the 90’s, but beyond that fact and the fun single “been caught stealing”, this album just doesn’t offer much of interest in my opinion. It works in two halves with the first five songs being more standard rock cuts which are fine I guess. and the back half being longer, more conceptually focused tracks. But the longer tracks don’t really develop in any interesting ways and don’t have strong enough lyricism to carry them on a story front so they really drag. I am personally not addicted to Jane’s Addiction.

3/5. The fallout of the Beatles was very messy, especially on the legal front, to the extent that Paul recorded this album mostly in secret and primarily used home-recording equipment. Which makes this a very early example of a lo-fi album. As an album it is very scatterbrained, there’s a number of songs here that feel more like fragmented ideas than fully realized songs, but you still feel the sense that Paul was working through some complicated feelings regarding the end of the Beatles. It’s not a perfect album by any means and the follow up, 1971’s “Ram” would go on to blow this album out of the water, but it’s still a very interesting listen in its own right and there’s some strong highlights here like “every night” or “maybe I’m amazed.”

5/5. I mean this is widely regarded as one of the best hip-hop albums for a reason, it’s just that good. Each member of the Wu-tang clan brings their all here in terms of flow and delivery. I’m also just a sucker for that 90’s east-coast style of production, and RZA’s production on this thing is fantastic. You of course have that iconic piano loop of “C.R.E.A.M.” But so many other tracks like “Method Man” or “Da Mystery of Chessboxin’” also have a great punch to them. Only downside to this album is that it’s so good that every future Wu tang album felt lesser in comparison (though some of the members solo albums at least get close.)

2/5. Over the years I have become much friendlier toward pop music and have gained an appreciation for a lot of pop artists both current and past and their place in culture/music history. That being said I have never cared for Lana Del Rey very much. I can respect just how influential she was to the music of the 2010’s, there is a direct line between “Born to Die” and all the moodier down-tempo pop that would come later in the decade, but her music and artistic persona have just never clicked for me, I find it all drab and boring. Most I can really say is that I enjoy a few tracks off of her album “Norman F*cking Rockwell.”

Which is all a long winded way of saying, Chemtrails over the Country club really didn’t do much for me. Even a track featuring Weyes Blood who I really enjoy didn’t make me feel much of anything. I’ll openly admit that this one’s more of a me thing and less about the merits of the music itself, but I just didn’t care for it.

3.5/5. I’ve always primarily been aware of Jefferson Airplane through the two big hits “Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit” which are both movie soundtrack staples (anytime I hear somebody to love I just think of the cohen brothers film “a serious man.”) Those are both great songs of course, but there’s also some solid deep cuts here like “My Best Friend” or the fingerpicked instrumental “Embryonic Journey.” Though some of the track list is fairly standard (but not bad) 60’s psych-rock that doesn’t stand out too much compared to its contemporaries. But this was a fun listen all around, enjoyed my time with it.

2/5. This whole album moves with a sense of swagger that it never actually earns in its runtime. The blending of genres like Post-punk, Glam, dance and alt rock here should be interesting in theory but in execution it honestly just felt kinda bland and lifeless most of the time. The sing-speak vocal delivery also ends up getting old pretty quick because there isn’t much variance in terms of delivery throughout the record. Felt very underwhelmed by this one.

4/5. Listened to this in the morning and that was honestly the right call, this is a nice and chill jazz record with some great playing. But the relaxed vibe of it doesn’t do service to how complex these compositions actually are. The story goes that the title track alone took over a dozen takes to get right. There’s a lot of weird little deviations from typical song structure here yet it all flows very well. And though this is a Monk album, Sonny Rollins has some great sax playing all over this record as well.

2/5. This album was not good, but it was at least bad in an interesting way so I was never bored during my listen-through. It tries to throw so much at the wall like rap on tracks like “Saturday Night”, smoother ballads like the closer “Cuando Canto” or some straight Latin on “Santiago” but they really don’t do any of these styles particularly well and it never adds up into a cohesive album. There’s a lot of lyrics that allude to this idea of a political revolution but the music is so edgeless that it doesn’t feel revolutionary. I thought the opener “Believe” had a pretty solid groove at least. Not good, but it was at least an interesting listening experience.