Reviews by mark-bionix

This is tough. I haven't listened to this since it first came out, and obviously the circumstances were very different then. I still think "Lazarus" is genuinely moving, but it may be the only song on the album I actually like listening too (with the possible exception of "I Can't Give Everything Away," which has kind of an insane arrangement that I really dig). I think three (black) stars is an acknowledgement of what this album achieved, while I might go lower if just looking at the music by its own merits. (I fucking love Bowie but there's so much more to him than what's here)

Absolute classic.

It's great but I think it hasn't aged as well as some other music from its era. Again I wish I could go back to the 90s and tell every artist that you do not need to fill an entire CD.

I think I'm finished with the Sabbath albums on this list. They're all good, but this one is special.

I have always loved this album and still do but it's a little bit marred by Evan Dando being a creep.

I really love Madonna but not nearly as much as the writers of this list do, apparently. She always has great hits but the album tracks are just... there. The "American Pie" cover is an abomination, which makes this the lowest rated Madge album so far.

I wore this album out in college. Still good.

Ok fine I guess we're giving all the Neil albums five stars. Fuck it, whatever, leave me alone.

The Pharcyde was always a little outside my hip hop listening zone in the 90s, but this is a very fun record. Will come back to it.

I am not a fan of this. The exaltation of Janis Joplin has always felt like it was borne of "let's not speak ill of the dead" vibes. But the band is not really doing anything interesting, and I just don't find Janis to be a particularly interesting vocalist.

Eh, they get better.

Really liked it. I pretty much always like free jazz or fusion stuff, but I find the genres pretty intimidating, just so much stuff out there that I don't know. Kind of like trying to get into soccer.

It's good! The arrangements on some of the album cuts were a bit different than what I expected from his other hits (i.e. more acoustic guitars).

This record starts off dull but side two bangs.

I dig it. A little hokey in parts, but she has a great voice.

This has never been my kind of music but I tried to give it a shot. Some of the lyrical content is really good (some of it is very much not), but the textures of this genre are just kind of off-putting for me. Very solid on its own terms, just not for me.

I like it it's nice.

The hits are known and loved. Was kind of hoping I'd find a deep cut that I could really get into, but they're not here (not even the one with Prince, which is kind of a dud).

Not his best, but still an exceptional record, especially given the circumstances surrounding its recording and release. Loved it.

Played a morning round of Boggle whilst listening to this and it soundtracked perfectly.