Reviews by lukazimir_

4/5. Bob Dylan’s careers was one of many ups and downs. His 60’s output made him the “voice of a generation” then he basically sabotaged his own image with the over-hated 1970 album “Self Portrait” before having an aimless early 70’s. Then he was suddenly back in peak shape in the mid 70’s with “Blood on the Tracks” and “Desire.” Then he plummeted off a cliff with his weirdly horny Christian era and an awful 1980’s albums (except for Oh Mercy which is a pretty good record.) then most of the 90’s ranged from mediocre to bad.

But then came “Time out of Mind” in 1997 which saw Dylan reunite with producer Daniel Lanois, producing what was easily his best album since the 70’s, and in my opinion his final truly great album. This album always makes me feel like I should be in a dingy dive-bar, listening to a man who’s destroyed his life by chain-smoking sing the blues. It’s among his darkest lyrically, and Lanois’ production gives it a very unique feel. Whether that be the guitar hits of “Love Sick” or the organs on my personal favorite track “cold irons bound”. There is also the 16 minute long beast of a closer “Highlands” and though it isn’t quite on the level of other long Dylan cuts like “Sad eyed lady of the lowlands” it’s still a good song. Maybe not the first Dylan record I’d recommend someone, but a pretty great late-era album from him.

4/5. One of the 90’s grunge classics, Superunknown saw Soundgarden take the hard-rock of their previous record “Badmotorfinger” and make it a bit slower and moodier, though there are still high energy songs to be found like the opener “let me drown” or “spoonman.” On that slower/moodier side though is what has become the bands defining song “Black Hole Sun” which is one of the best rock cuts of the 90’s. Chris Cornell was also an amazing vocalist, probably the best of the grunge scene and he really shines on this album.

4/5. Though almost impossible to beat Nirvana when it comes to the big grunge bands of the 90’s, Alice In Chains has always held a solid second place for me. They, especially on this album take grunge and make it slower, heavier and angrier. Which begins immediately with the opening shout on “Them Bones” which is a great song with a lot of muscle behind it in the rhythm section. From there things slow down tempo-wise but are still very potent emotionally whether that be on “Down in a Hole” or “Rooster.” the closer “Would” is also among the bands best. Though my favorite might actually be the deep cut “sickman.” Great grunge record on the whole, though I will say when it comes to AiC, the Jar of Flies EP is really where it’s at for me.

2.5/5. More like this album put me to Schleep. jokes aside, between this and “Rock Bottom” I just don’t think Robert Wyatt’s style of jazz-laced art rock/prog is for me. I quite liked the opener “Heaps of Sheeps”, the horn-heavy “September the Ninth” and the Bob Dylan homage “Blues in Bob Minor” but beyond that most of the album just felt pretty aimless and lifeless.

4/5. Despite being their most iconic album, if I were to rank the 5 main Simon and Garfunkel records, Bridge over Troubled Water would find itself second to last. Which mainly has to do with the ending portion of the album. The A-side however is pretty much perfect. The opening title track has what might be Art Garfunkels best vocal performance, “El-Condor Pasa” has a very fun and distinct instrumental, “Keep the Customer Satisfied” is a horn-laced banger. “Cecilia” is also great, though I have always found the fact that Cecilia cheats on him in his own bedroom to be hilarious. I also love “So Long Frank Lloyd Wright” with its beautiful flute passages.

However the best song here, and a contender for S&G’s best song is “The Boxer.” That build and those snare hits still gives me chills every time. And to get that loud/intense snare sound they hit the drum in front of an open elevator shaft.

The album continues on well up until “the only living boy in New York”, but then I feel like the album does lost some steam in its last leg. There’s a random live cover of the Everly Brothers “By Bye Love”, which is a bit of a full-circle moment for S&G considering how much their music was influenced by them, but it does also feel out of place on this album. And “Song for the Asking” and “why don’t you write me” are both just okay.

Despite my mixed feelings on the last leg, Bridge Over Troubled water is still a great album and a great send off for the duo before they began their many decades of hating each-other.

5/5. In my top 5 albums of all time, Nick Drake’s Pink Moon is in my eyes as close to perfection as an album can get. His predecessor “Bryter Layter” saw him expanding his sound with more orchestration, and Pink Moon opted to go the opposite route, stripping basically everything that isn’t guitar and Nick’s voice away. The only other instrument that appears is a piano on the opening title track.

The album is produced in an extremely intimate way, everything feels super warm and close which helps with the emotional potency of the album. Nick Drake is often a symbolic and vague lyricist but there are some devastating, more direct moments on this record like “Parasite” where he likens himself to a parasite leeching off of the people in his life.

And talk about a stacked tracklist. It’s a slim 28 minutes and every single song here is fantastic. They often seem simple being just guitar and vocals, but there is actually a lot of interesting, slightly-jazzy structure to a lot of the songs. If I had to pick a top 3 songs though I’d go with “Things Behind the Sun” which is the longest track on the album, “Free Ride” and “Parasite”.

A lot of discussion around Nick Drake gets clouded in the “mystique” of his reclusive life and tragic suicide. But the man had a pretty much perfect catalogue of music and I feel it’s worth celebrating that, even if he never lived to see his music get the recognition it deserved.

3/5. Maxwells Urban Hang Suite is a concept album and that concept is having sex. some extremely well produced R&B that dodges a lot of the trappings that other 90’s R&B fall into. That being said, it definitely drags a bit at times, there’s some songs that could easily lose a minute or two and not lose much of value.

2.5/5. There’s some solid moments to be found here. I liked the intro track “can’t stand me now” as well as the doo-wop-ish “What Katie did.” But most of the album is just pretty forgettable garage rock revival stuff with some hints of the Clash mixed in.

2/5. The biggest hit “Feelin’ Alright?” Was solid enough, but the rest of this album really didn’t do much for me. Found the vocals kinda grating at points and musically tons of albums from this era blow it out of the water.

2.5/5. An exceptionally okay album. Norah’s singing is definitely the highlight, she’s a strong vocalist and her voice does fit this quiet, intimate style of lounge-pop pretty well. But musically the album did basically nothing for me. You can make Lounge-y music sound fun and interesting, bands like Stereolab have done just that for example (yes I know it’s somewhat of an apples to oranges comparison.) but as it stands, listening to this album I couldn’t shake the feeling that it’s just “coffee shop/book shop” music. Perfectly fine for the background.

4/5. A lot more chill and introspective than I would have expected. The beats here are all pretty great, they are simple on the surface but there’s a lot of cool little details, like the short looping guitar line on “Death Around the Corner.” Thematically, this album was made in a time where a lot was happening in 2Pacs life between jail-time, an attempt on his life, and always being in the eye of the media ecosystem. And that paranoia/exhaustion can definitely be felt all over this album. Great listen.

4/5. Though New Order always had a danceable quality to their music, “Technique” is the album that saw them most embrace the dance-floor, taking some influence from European electronic music which you can really see on tracks like “Round and Round” or the opener “Fine Time.” Though there are other flavors of song to be found here too. “All the Way” sounds more like a classic Power, Corruption and Lies era New Order track. On the whole though, very good album that saw New Order successfully shift their sound to something newer.

3/5. Not one of my personal favorite Curtis Mayfield albums. His singing is still great and the production is smooth but most of the songs on this one have just never stuck with me as much as those found on an album like “Move on Up.” That being said I do at least love the closer “love to the people”.

5/5. This record and its follow up “This is Happening” are likely among my most listened albums of all time and in my opinion they probably are the peak of the 2000’s indie boom.

Once those drums really kick in on opener “Get Innocuous!” You’ll know you’re in good hands. and the album is chalked full of amazing grooves like that. However where this album really becomes an all timer is in the middle with the three track run of “Someone Great”, “All my Friends” and “Us V. Them.”

“Someone Great” is likely the most emotionally potent song in the LCD Soundsystem catalogue, being a tribute to frontman James Murphy’s therapist who took their own life. Lots of gut-punching lines about the moments leading up to him getting the news and the aftermath of it all. Then right after is “All my Friends” which has an almost Krautrock like repetition to it, and sees someone at a party trying to reconnect with old friends. It also contains my favorite LCD Soundsystem line “I wouldn’t trade one stupid decision for another 5 years of life.” It also just has a fantastic build. Then there is “Us V. them” which has the best groove on the album.

And though those three are all timers, the rest of this album is stacked too. I love the synth lines of “Time to Get Away” and the more fast paced “watch the tapes.” Then there is also the closer “New York I love you, but you’re bringing me down” which mostly ditches the electronics and forms a fantastic piano led ballad to close the album out.

3/5. Definitely liked this one more than “every good boy deserves fudge.” Though I still wasn’t fully in love with it. I respect Mudhoneys legacy of being a foundational grunge band and helping to put SubPop on the map as a label. But when it comes to grunge I do just vastly prefer the 90’s hitmakers like Nirvana or Alice In Chains over these early bands. The opener “touch me I’m sick” is a banger however.

3/5. I had Getz/Gilberto less than a week ago on here so this is the second time in that span where I’ve had a record with “the Girl from Ipanema.” Not that I’m complaining as that is a very good song (though I do prefer the version found on Getz/Gilberto.)

This album sees Sinatra link up with Brazilian jazz artist Antonio Carlos Jobin to do some Bossa Nova. The production on this album is fantastic, everything sounds very clear and pretty. Though I will say I don’t think Sinatra’s voice is the best suited for a more laid back genre like this. It works on some tracks like “How Insensitive” but less so on a song like “Meditation.”

3/5. Like many 80’s pop albums, Cyndi Laupers “She’s so Unusual” suffers most from sounding extremely outdated at times, there is a handful of that 80’s cheese that tends to be an instant no-go for me. However, the production here is also much better than many other 80’s albums which somewhat saves it. That and when it hits, it has some great pop songs like the iconic “Time after Time.” Bit of a mixed bag on the whole, but there’s some great pop songs to be found on this record.

1/5. As a person born in the U.S. after the year 2000, my introduction to Robbie Williams was his 2024 biopic where he is a CGI ape. Robbie has a pretty typical artist story for his time, a former boy-band member who made it big on his own, in this case thanks to this albums biggest hit “Angels.” As for the music, at least on this debut, it is nothing. It feels completely void of anything compelling. kinda Brit-poppy, kinda alt-rocky, kinda poppy, but never good no matter the style being tackled. The big epic tracks feel unearned and the slower emotional cuts feel insincere.

3/5. Probably the single most British album I’ve had on the generator so far. Highlight for me is the production, the beats across the album are genuinely great. As for Skepta’s rapping, it’s hit or miss for me. He goes hard on some songs like “It Ain’t Safe” but there’s other points that just feel kinda corny.

4/5. Very good bit of Bossa Nova. the highlight for me is the production, the whole record sounds like you’re in a small cafe listening to these songs live, giving it a very intimate and easygoing feel. Plus Getz’s tenor sax playing pairs extremely well with Gilberto’s gentle guitar. The biggest highlight for me is the album opener (and its biggest hit) “The Girl from Ipanema” which features two singers trading verses around and some great, but gentle solos.