Reviews by mattrickpow

Overall: 6/10

Pretty good for the most part. I enjoy how jazzy the beats can get and the social commentary in the lyrics. A lot of the songs remind me (and most you, I'm sure) of Public Enemy, which can never be a bad thing. However, the beats can get a little boring at times and the lyrics, while I enjoy how they're used, can be a little cringey and preachy. It's easy to recommend it just for people to make their own opinions about it, but I'd say it was interesting at the most.

Fav Song: Satanic Reverses
Least Fav Song: Music and Politics

Overall: 10/10

I don't even know where to begin. This album is 55 years old and it hasn't aged a single day. It's dark and doomy and may be the most important metal album of all time (or tied with Sabbath's debut).

War Pigs is still the greatest metal song ever written in my opinion. It's heavy, lyrically relevant and every member of the band gives such an incredible performance. It blows me away every single time I listen to it.

Every other song is amazing as well. Paranoid is pretty much punk, Planet Caravan is hypnotizing, Electric Funeral and Hand of Doom are both epic and Fairies Wear Boots is one of my favourite Ozzy performances. Tony is a riff lord, Geezer showed me how creative bassists can be and Bill is just incredibly underrated, bringing ferocity while adding bits of jazz influences. One of my favourite drummers of all time.

I'll stop there because I could go on forever and still never say anything original because IT'S PARANOID. I love it so much.

Fav Song: War Pigs
Least Fav Song: Planet Caravan

Overall: 4/10

I think a lot of the instrumentation on this album is interesting and has moments of beautiful brilliance. It's Van Morrison himself that completely turns me off from enjoying this more than I do. The way he "sings" these songs isn't very melodic and feels like a stream of consciousness mess to me. The lyrics themselves are great but he's pretty much just talking over the music the entire time. I found myself getting incredibly annoyed by him at times. It's a shame, because I really wanted to like this one.

Fav Song: Sweet Thing
Least Fav Song: Beside You

Overall: 8/10

Anyone who's ever read my reviews for double albums has likely picked up on the fact that I really don't like the concept of a double album. There's only so much time in a day and I don't like having to make room for such lengthy projects. However, this is Led Zeppelin. I will make an exception.

The first half of this album would probably be my favourite Zeppelin album if it was it's own thing. Songs like In My Time of Dying and Kashmir are epic and tickle my brain in ways most other artists can't. The song Houses of the Holy, named after my personal favourite Zeppelin album, is also a favourite of mine. I adore Bonham's drumming so much.

The second half isn't as good sadly. It's good enough that I can still give this a high rating, but the first half is better. I still really enjoy stuff like The Wanton Song and Ten Years Gone. Those songs are rockers.

This was the last truly great album from Zeppelin. They had other great moments in the end of their career together but this is their swan song (how appropriate) in my opinion. It shows how great of a band they are that this is one of my least favourite of their albums.

Fav Song: In My Time of Dying
Least Fav Song: Boogie with Stu

Overall: 8/10

I knew these guys were british exactly 22 seconds in.

Such a great, fun, punky album. The instrumentation is creative and unique. I love the vocals, they fit so well with the songs they wrote. If anything, I'm just surprised I never even remotely had this on my radar. The bassist is insane.

Fav Song: Mr. Clean
Least Fav Song: Fly

Overall: 7/10

This was really good! As much as I enjoyed Linda's contributions, it was Richard Thompson's voice that made me enjoy this more than I would have. It has a soothing quality to it. Plus his songs were closer to folk whereas Linda's were more country. I prefer the folkier stuff.

Fav Song: The Calvary Cross
Least Fav Song: We Sing Hallelujah

Overall: 6/10

The musicians here are top notch. The sounds here are huge and played with tight precision. I'm still very new to jazz but I enjoyed this. Hopefully I'll like it even more when I'm more accustomed to this style.

Fav Song: Flight of the Foo Birds
Least Fav: After Supper

Overall: 3/10

Sadly, this is the type of country music that I really don't enjoy. You have to have a truly special voice for me to like country and Nanci just doesn't have a voice that stands out enough for me. That's not to say I hated the entire thing though. There were some songs that caught me off guard. More Than a Whisper is a beautiful song with great instrumentation. If the whole album made me feel the way that song does then it would have been much better. Also, this album flys by very quickly which is a very good thing.

Fav Song: More Than a Whisper
Least Fav Song: The Last of the True Believers

Overall: 7/10

I prefer this early bluesy side of ZZ Top to their later stuff. The solos are so much fun to listen to. There really isn't much to complain about, I just had a good time with it.

Fav Song: La Grange
Least Fav Song: Move Me On Down the Line

Overall: 5/10

I was really looking forward to this one. I really like Crosby, Stills and Nash and David Crosby is obviously a big part of that love. For some reason, this album took a few songs for me to really get into it. There's nothing wrong with it at all, I just wasn't vibing with it all that much. It feels like a bunch of unfinished ideas that he decided to slap onto the same album. I'm sadly dissapointed by it.

Fav Song: Traction in the Rain
Least Fav Song: Music is Love

Overall: 8/10

For anyone who doesn't know, this is a double album where esch half focuses on one member of the duo. The first half is Big Boi's time to shine, with the music being pure hip hop in the style of Outkast's previous work.

The Big Boi half is pretty great in my opinion. It's a really solid hip hop album and I love all of the different guest spots (especially Killer Mike). Big Boi has always sort of been in Andre's shadow, but he's just as important to the success of Outkast in my opinion. If I was just rating Speakerboxxx then this would likely get a 9/10 from me. Criminally underrated.

The Love Below is Andre 3000 deciding he doesn't want to be a rapper anymore, and it's more R&B/Rock/Soul oriented. Very eclectic and lots of variety. It's experimental for Outkast and it's self indulgent and overbloated with ideas. I enjoy most of what's going on and I appreciate that Andre wanted to do something different, but I enjoy Speakerboxxx more.

Overall, I think this messy double album is probably in the middle of my Outkast album rankings. They have better stuff and they have worse stuff. I would never recommend it as the first Outkast album anybody listens to but it's something I think any fan of the duo would enjoy. It's interesting to see what both members bring to the table.

Fav Song (Speakerboxxx): Church
Least Fav Song(Speakerboxxx): Knowing
Fav Song: (The Love Below): Happy Valentine's Day
Least Fav Song: (The Love Below): Prototype

Overall: 7/10

Kind of a hit or miss album, but I enjoyed more than I disliked! I like the artpop feel and the vocals quite a bit. It's definitely trying to be as artsy as possible and that's okay. The one thing I don't really like is the overuse of the harpsichord. It got a little irritating after a while.

Fav Song: Sunny Afternoon
Least Fav Song: House in the Country

Overall: 6/10

I have mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand, Hooker has a great voice and is an OG who understands the blues and how to implement it best. On the other hand, the album is overproduced and features too many collaborators that take away from Hooker's performance. In the end, it's worth checking out, especially if you're a newcomer to the blues like I am.

Fav Song: I'm In the Mood
Least Fav Song: The Healer

Overall: 2/10

Well, I hate Coldplay. I always have and I always will. They bore me to tears and Chris Martin sucks as a vocalist and a person. This entire album went in one ear and out the other and I quite honestly forgot I was even listening to it at all. Straight up garbage, thank you Coldplay.

Fav Song: Shiver didn't suck that bad
Least Fav Song: Yellow

Overall: 6/10

I really like the lyrics for this one. There's an underlying sadness to every single song and it's obvious that the lyricist went through a lot of tragedy to be able to write like this. I found it to be a bit of a bore instrumentally though, and the urge to skip through a couple of tracks was strong. I still think it's a good album and worth checking out though.

Fav Song: Another Day Full of Dread
Least Fav Song: Knockturne

Overall: 6/10

Honestly, I've never been a big fan of Pearl Jam. At one point in time they were the band I hated the most. I've mostly gotten over that hate, but I still don't enjoy their music.

I think the biggest hurdle I need to get over to actually liking Pearl Jam is Eddie Vedder. As a person, he seems great. He seems charitable and aligns with my politics, but I can't stand his voice. To me, he sounds like he gargles glass for 20 minutes before he steps foot in the recording booth. His lyrics tend to be hit or miss for me too, with songs like Even Flow and Jeremy being beautiful poetry, but a song like Porch being kind of lame.

The best thing about Pearl Jam is every other musician in the band. I couldn't name any of them if I'm being honest, but their bassist and drummer are especially good. Their guitarist(s?) is good too but I'm not a fan of their guitar tone.

Overall, there's some great songs and some stuff that I enjoy, and I would definitely say it's the best Pearl Jam album I've listened to. However, this time listening to it didn't change my opinion in any way and I still don't think it's as great as everybody else seems to think it is.

Fav Song: Even Flow
Least Fav Song: Porch

Overall: 6/10

I would have loved to give this a higher rating cause the music itself is really fun and I had a good time jamming too it. Those lyrics though....super hit or miss.

I like the vulnerable nature of her lyrics. There were moments that made me think that she must have been an inspiration for Charli xcx (or maybe the other way around? I'm still new to modern pop). There were also moments where she just talks about her pussy for a loooooong time. I'm all about female empowerment and it would have been fine a couple times but it happened more often than I would have liked. Some more lyrical variety on that front would have been nice.

Some great highlights and some other songs that just didn't do it for me. I'm a girlboss at heart but I have my limits as well.

Fav Song: Prom
Least Fav Song: Supermodel

Overall: 10/10

There were shades of brilliance in every single Beatles album before this one, including Rubber Soul which I consider to be my favourite album they made. This one though....this is the one that changed everything.

Quite possibly one of the most important albums of all time, it tows the line between pop and rock. The creativity on display here is almost unmatched, and every song is a trip. You never know what to expect (unless you've heard it a million times like I have) and every member of the band brings their A-game. I don't particularly enjoy Yellow Submarine but not enough for it to ruin the album in any way.

Such a great record and one that has stood the test of time and many would argue is their best work. I'd probably put it at 4 or 5 in my Beatles ranking, but that just shows how much I love this incredible band.

Fav Song: Eleanor Rigby
Least Fav Song: Yellow Submarine

Overall: 8/10

I had absolutely no idea what to expect from this as I had never even heard of this group or album in passing before, so I decided to just put it on and go along for the ride. I'm so glad I did that cause I enjoyed it a lot more with the element of mystery involved.

First off, the vocals are straight fire, and so much of the singer's personality comes through in the music. Second, the bassist absolutely slaps (lol). He's incredible and I found myself focusing on him a lot. The music itself ranges from heavy, in-your-face rockers to pretty, slow ballads and the vocalist handles both equally well.

This is why I'm doing this challenge. I want to discover new music and this is certainly something new that has the potential to join my regular rotation.

Fav Song:
Least Fav Song: Good Things Don't Always Come to You

Overall: 8/10

I got White Blood Cells only 5 days ago so I might just compare this to that one.

I like this one slightly more. The production is bigger and there's more variety in the songwriting. One problem I have is that Meg does vocals occasionally and I don't really enjoy her voice. Seven Nation Army is horribly overplayed but I still enjoy it. I also really like the slower, acoustic based songs a lot. This is peak White Stripes in my opinion.

Fav Song: I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself
Least Fav Song: In the Cold, Cold Night