Reviews by magsmusic

At first I thought it was mostly silly, but reflecting on it that is part of the point I think. He took a concept of school, teacher's, student lives, clique rivalries and graduation and made an interesting story. It lost some cohesiveness in musical style but it was cohesive with the story he was telling. Reading other reviews, I agree this could be the next Rock Broadway show. I would totally check it out!

My initial though...ugh Radiohead again. So I took a deep breath, regrouped and said, yay Radiohead, so I could give it a fair shot.
Somehow I feel like they have such meaningful lyrics and dumb and repetitive lyrics at the same time. Says and the raindrops for half the song and then I will eat you alive, there will be no more lies for another. Which makes them so hard for me to like or dislike. I like Backdrifts, Going to Sleep, and There, There. But overall I don't get the total love and almost worshipness of them.
On kind of a random tangent...I get it the song is complaining about W Bush and invading Iraq and the war on terror. I am not ever going defend W and the Merica dream, but I do find interesting that he bases the whole album on that and people following along like sheep. Yes W was the figurehead and a lot of people followed like sheep, but your country didn't "fall into the lie," they benefited from it, they wanted to do it as well, they knew there were no weapons...yes W was a problem, but it wasn't jus us, so in a way in retrospect this feels a little bit of money grabby and trying to jump on a bandwagon to make an album to just make money at Merica's expense.

There is something so beautiful and kind about her soul that comes across in her music. She is out to have a good time and just wants to have some fun but in a meaningful way. Run Baby Run is a beautiful song. The only one I wasn't a huge fan of was Solidify, just felt kind of weird and out of place to me. Overall it was nice to hear a beautiful woman talking about life in a way that wasn't overally flashy or attentiony.

I never heard of this band so I assumed it would be kind of off the wall music since it came out in my younger music loving years. After listening and being fairly underwhelmed I did research and realized this was a super group singing about modern London. Super groups to me are typically a let down, so that explains my feelings on this one. Too many people with too many cool ideas get together and instead of pushing each other they created some watered down generic album. Maybe if I'd been to London this would have been better but nope it's just blah

So I go back and forth on this album. At times the rock folks sounds carry me away to a field with a bunch of hippies braising one another hair and making flower crowns, but them it turns into almost cult like music (damn the establishment listen to is instead). Thinking about it maybe that what all this genre was about, Jethro Tull just wasn't as subtle. The fife playing was fire through and added some really cool moments to songs, but also added to the come follow us vibe. Overall I'd listen again but in small doses so I don't follow the pied piper

I don't remember having Blues yet, or maybe it wasn't memorable but this one was. Something special about this album is how the instruments aren't just playing the melody, they are another member of the band. For instance, Deep Down in Florida, the bass and the harmonica invoke so much emotion and soul. Yes it gets repetitive at times but it's also beautiful. Cross-eyed Cat is my favorite. As I was listening I did think how much similar sounds you find in Blues and that they don't mind. It's like this amazing brotherhood of sound, emotion and passion. This album brings me to a smoky bar, drinks following, people talking and enjoying just the music.

Oh early Madonna...really so much of a game changer. When I hear this album it is a bridge between 80s and 90s pop music. Researching Love Song (because I was 100% Prince was the male voice) and it turns out Prince was the uncredited guitarist on multiple songs and Stevie Nicks actually wrote Love song!!! Sometimes when too many good people are involved it becomes a mess but this really turned out so well.
Like a Prayer is so fire and Express Yourself is such an amazing Girl Power Anthem. Which really is what makes this album so great, growing up Catholic I knew people that burned her CDs and forbid their kids from listening to her music and listening to it now that is just crazy! All she is talking about is female empowerment, expecting a man to treat you well, and enjoying love. What is so wrong and crazy about that!?!?
I can't say its perfect because some of the lesser knowns didn't totally hit, but this is an album that helped shaped 90's music and female empowerment!

This one was up and down for me. Some were really pretty, relaxing and chill while others tried but the pieces didn't all come together. Sometimes that might have been related to the fact that the album was more an art piece then radio music. I tried to refocus my lenses on how I interpreted and enjoyed the music. I can pick out the reasons for some of the parts I enjoyed less (Falsetto in You Masculine You) and appreciate the artistic value. The music was very aethereal against some darker themes, which made for some hauntingly beautiful melodies. Overall it wasn't my thing, but there were some nice moments and I can appreciate the value it brings to the musical world.

They have a unique sound, you know that it is Staley singing and Cantrell has a distinct sound. It is also much more metal and stands out from the other Seattle music at this time. Them Bones had a cool guitar riff and I liked the voice distortion on God Smack. Sickman's chorus was cool, but not cohesive with the verses.
While overall they have a different sound, every song sort of sounded the same. It just felt like one big song that didn't really go anywhere else. By the end I wanted something more or different, something to break it up and show depth or range. Hate to Feel and Would? almost did that...but they were just too little too late.

This one started weird and overall I didn't like the start but was excited to see a different Peter Gabriel from our previous album. But then it got into it and was so 80's but so different that I couldn't help but enjoy it. Something about it is super dark and edgy, but also has that 80;s bop to it that makes it seem light hearted and easy to get into. I Don't Remember and Not One of Us were my favorites. I really enjoyed how he meshed different sounds and genres to make something unique and yet fit so well in the time.

I was really enjoying this album at first. It was all instrumental but it was fun and enjoyable to have going in the background, even found myself dancing to Leb Wohl and Hero. But then it just kind of fell off and got boring with E-Musik. I really thought that song was building to something but no crescendo happened. After Eight wasn't bad but didn't seem to fit on the rest of the album, it seemed much more punk rocky then the rest of a chill calm album. If it had stayed on the original path I could have gone to a 4 but the way it ended gotta go with a 3.

Another Amy...another complex album. My first thoughts were annoyed and angry. She is complaining and almost encouraging toxic masculinity, slut shaming women, and turns around and talks about how its no big deal to cheat because the guy looked like her partner. Just felt so hypocritical and fun of herself it annoyed me.
But then I listened more and What is it about Men and I Heard Love is Blind really made me think of how our society expects women to be prudes and slutty at the same time. Also the way we promote love and romance in rom-coms and that men only love you when they act like dicks and you put up with it, until they MAYBE change. On top of that toxic relationships and how those mess with your head in a way that is unexplainable unless you have been in one. You can think you are in love but really you are in a total mind f@ck.
Yes it is hypocritical, yes it is dark and unhealthy versions of love, but it is also what our society has created for women to live in. 40 year old me knows better and blocked out what 20 year old me lived.

This was unoffensive hotel lobby music. It was mostly upbeat and didn't go off on many tangents. You wouldn't necessarily notice it but would also be okay if someone changed it. I had heard Take Five and Blue Rondo before, and they were both enjoyable. Strange Meadowlark was good and it reminded me of music in a Charlie Brown movie. Maybe it is just the season but I feel like a lot of the songs gave me undertones of Christmas songs. Reading the explanation it is a big deal album, broke a lot of records for jazz, but honestly I am not sure why. I would almost rather listen to something that is bad and leaves an impression, as opposed to something okay that doesn't leaves little impression.

Starting this off with an explanation of my mind...jazz is not my thing and after listening to two albums in a row I tried to think about why. I think it is the lack of cohesion and what I perceive as chaos in the music, which I am sure is the point, so I tried to think of how to perceive the chaos positively.
In this album it was not bad....it seemed to flow most of the time, and connect back to the undersounds that carried the songs. However, they were just long, for me anything over 6 minutes just seems to drag so I just didn't need so much. I think I could have almost enjoyed it if they were shorter.

The album was longer but the individual songs didn't seem too bad. Jazz is not my fav but this felt more like Big Band Music that had Jazz influences. Duke Ellington is someone that is acclaimed for his music, and I will say it is really good in terms of Jazz music. The fact that the band had been together so long makes some of the improvising so much more polished and cohesive. Hearing how much the crowd wanted them to continue was inspiring. Skin Deep had great drums and I liked Newport Up and Dimineendo in Blue. The Studeio Concert Excerpts were also nice to just hear Duke play for a bit.

For some reason the phrase "Any major dude..." just makes me chuckle. It feels like an old person trying to be hip. Then Barrytown says how he likes things the way they were and discussing hair cuts. There is something old man shaking his fist at youngsters, but also having long hippie hair and Jesus sandals.
There are some cool sounds like East St. Lousis Toodle-Oo. And Rikki Don't lose that number gets stuck in your head. But those two also don't feel like they should be on the same album.
I can sing and bop along to it, but there is just something slightly weird or off if I really listen to it. I will go with a 3 because I might be turning into that old hippie...

So there was some coolness to this album. Shara Nelson is great, and everything she sang gave me the feels, she was terrific! When the guys sang it was just so blah, especially compared to Shara. It was just so vastly different that it made their songs feel emotionless and uninspired. Hymn of the Big Wheel and Unfinished Sympathy.
Overall the lyrics seemed really obvious, which at times was nice but then other times just made the songs a little boring. There were also a lot of cliche lines pulled from other songs (did like the Fiddler on the Roof nod though). I liked the music, and there were some great beats and vibe. It was cool to hear the beginning of trip-hop but if this is all it is, I don't know if I would go further into the sounds.

I didn't take good notes on this album, so this is generic.
There were some good songs, some that were less good. They definitely have their own sound, making it seem repetitive. Each song and lyrics had depth, just a lot of similar cords and melodies over and over. I enjoyed it though, but nothing groundbreaking.

The question for today is not what came first the chicken or the egg? But who came first Peter Gabriel or Phil Collins? I am sure there are some super fans out there that will argue that Phil Collins hits a better high C or that Peter Gabriel has a better tamber, but seriously they sound exactly the same!
For me who came first really impacts how influential this album is, because one of them just copied off the other!
So during research I found out that that Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins both were the lead singers of Genesis with Peter coming first. Phil was the drummer and took over reluctantly (him and Peter are friends). Knowing that, I understand that this was influential. This was a different sound and unique (to Genesis, Peter and Phil). Its fun, it has emotion and its catchy. In Your Eyes is a great song. I really enjoyed Red Rain I like Sledgehammer, but not so much that I won't change it if something is better on another station.
Then it becomes difficult though because he sounds so similar to Phil that its hard not to compare. Genesis and Phil just do it slightly better, better deeper lyrics, more catchy tunes and something I am less likely to turn the radio on. Phil took what Peter did and just made it better. So I will go with a 3 because it really is a good base for future music and sound but really others took this sound and did it better.

They're hanging me tonight felt more 50s sock hop them cowboy. Overall not bad just not my thing. There is some beauty in the storytelling in the songs. It's straight forward but it's also a good reminder of folklore and story telling traditions through song. Makes me think of some of the songs origin and the cowboy lifestyle long ago. Not wanting to go back but just good examples of a time gone by.