Reviews by magsmusic

This was a hidden little treat. Never heard of them and sad this is my first experience. Lots of the songs made my looked list including This is the One, Don't stop and She Bands the Drum. Elizabeth my dear was a downer. Shoot you down had a little 50s vibe that I enjoyed. Each song was a little different and had a fun easy going vibe but the lyrics had some depth and meaning. Definitely coming back to this one. They took older bops and sounds but really successfully blended them with new sounds. They could for across lots of decades and genres. Love it

I don't hate it but wow downer whiner. They have decent lyrics and it's a good overall album. But it's emo and would be good if you want to wallow

Roll with it started to hurt my ears a little but overall it was good. I can hear the criticism of them going to pop and mainstream. I will also say I think overall they are slightly overrated and I think their massive feud helped turn them into something bigger than they would have been without it. But there are some hits on this that have a great alt pop rock sound that make you want to dance along and be super mellow at the same time.

Bjork...not my thing. So for me this one was okay.

This was vanilla and oh so bland. It was subtle but I don't think I felt or heard anything along with the subtleness to make me feel this album was anything else but fine.

Fun enough, hair band rock and roll. A little juvenile and simple lyrics at times but nothing completely offensive.

It was emo 80's. It was fine, but also a downer. I really wanted to give it a 3 but the longer I listened I just really couldn't stand it....

I love this project because of albums/artists like Ali. This was really cool and one I could listen to again and again. It was so different, yet familiar. I love his nickname King of the desert "blues." It perfectly encompasses his sound and how he has taken his west African roots and backgrounds and mixed it with bayou blues. He shows so well how musical roots evolve and change to meet their setting and time but still stay connected to the ancestry of the musical sound. N'jarou was my favorite by far and looking it up it might translate to 'in the spring,' I don't know why exactly but that brought a tear to my eye while listening, this was his last album and last song before he died. There is so much happiness and life in this song (and album), and to realize he wanted this to be the last sounds the world heard from him makes it even more special and beautiful.

How can an album be so right and so wrong at the same time. Its completely juvenile, misogynistic, made by over the top man children. It is so over the top and their whining and complaining is completely immature and ridiculous. I have to hope they are just being characters of themselves (but sadly too many people really think this way).
However, the over the topness somehow works. They mixed rap with rock and some angry punk type vibes to be something unique and different. Sometimes they yell a little too much or just seem angry for no good reason but the beats just make you want to fight for your right to party

Common is a different modern rapper, he isn't the fastest and doesn't spend the whole time talking about how amazing he is or being in the club. His lyrics remind me of old school rappers who focused on big issues, the cities they love (Chi-City shoutout), and women (not always my favorite of his lyrics) and that is a good thing. He mixes that with hip hop and R&B music styles that make it unique. The Intro was great, Testify was a great story, Chi-City was fun and Real People was different and poignant. He is different in the genre blending together different traditional black sounds and does it well. Being from Chicago he also doesn't get tangled up in rap beefs and just makes music that has a purpose.

When I listen to Offspring I instantly know who I am listening to. They have a sound that is completely unique to them and is fun to listen to. I think that is what makes them so successful, you know you are listening to them and somehow that helps you look past all the little things in their songs that are misogynistic, inappropriate and just a little off. I didn't realize there were so many hits on this album so it was a nice surprise to hear. The one criticism is that you always know you are listening to Offspring because everything starts to sound similar after a while.

Reading about this album and the artist I wanted to love it, I went into it with a positive attitude but it was just kind of meh. I didn't think her story telling was all that amazing and I think the music was just fine. Maybe I need to listen again but nothing grabbed me or hit me as anything important.

I love this album...it takes you here there and everywhere but somehow works so well together. I like that while they are a team they each took and album and made their own vocals and own talents shine. You can listen to this as one big experience or break it into two separate albums. Big Boi has good rhymes and is just simple, easy going and yet gets to the point in ways you can feel. Then Andre is just so over the top and sneaky funny. I am not sure which I like better because they both have their own high points, on a mellow day Speakerboxxx is where it is at, but on a high happy day I can't help but rock out to The Love Below.

This was really all over the place. Nothing was bad just didn't go together and I was sure what to expect next in a chaotic random kind of way.

So parts of it are good but most of the time I was just confused and kind of toned it out. It didn't hurt my ears but I don't know how these people got a record deal. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't good.

Wow its full of tragedy and sorrow. I sometimes think of the oldin days and how hard things were. When people moved you never heard from them again, death was much more common and expectations were so much stricter. This album covers all of that and yet keeps it somewhat light and playful in their songs. This feels like how I would have had to deal with all that sorrow and tragedy, keep it movin, yes I am sad but I can't get drug down into it because its just part of everyday life. We don't forget it, we mourn it, but then the next day comes with its own struggles so we keep going. It makes me think of my grandparents and their lives, the struggles many of them dealt with and yet how loving and caring they were.

I don't understand it and sometimes it a little too much emotion and over the top, but it is also French so...

I started a review, scrapped it and started over. I grew up in this era I didn't listen to this album. This album was out at the heigh of the 2000's/90's girl vs girl drama the media pushed (Christina vs. Brittney, Monica vs. Brandy, Mariah vs. JLo). This specific rivalry Christina was the 'dirty' one pushing the envelope on the idea of female sexuality, fighting the double standard and embracing a more free lifestyle. I love that idea and applaud the ladies that pushed that envelope and dealt with the pushback.
But this album focuses too much on pushing the boundaries, buying into the person the media made her and not focusing on what she was really good at, singing (and not always crazy vibrato way). There are a few highlights that show her talent, The Voice Within, Keep on Singin, even Dirrty. But then there was Walk Away, Make Over, Loving me 4 me, they are trying so hard to play into the sexual side that they become cheesy and way over the top. It was like she was trying to hide her voice, and use all these other tricks to get people to like the songs, when she didn't need to! I know it says she was heavily involved in the writing and this was her premiere album, but it doesn't hold up (I have no loyalty to her or Ms. Spears). This album is too much, too over the top, making it overall of a bad example of early 2000's pop music. I will still dance and sing along at the top of my longs to Dirrty and Fighter, but overall this album does Ms. Aguilera Dirrty and doesn't spend enough time letting her show off her strongest asset, her voice.

Probably was great and revolutionary at the time but now its good but left me wanting.

What bothers me the most about this album is that he actually has some good songs and parts but then he overlays it with the crude peepee poopoo and gynecology horror/humor that just makes me check out. If you had focused on the good stuff this would have been way more successful.