Reviews by mattrickpow

Overall: 8/10

Awe man, I love the vibes on this one. I got that live Grateful Dead album a while back and I had just assumed they were a glorified jam band. That still might be the case, but on here they're closer to the chill americana of The Band than anything else, and I really dig it. I could see myself grabbing this on vinyl and putting it on when I need a chill day.

Fav Song: Candyman

Overall: 8/10

Stellar stuff. I've always been a big fan of Blur, they're probably my favourite band that was a part of the britpop era. I actually prefer other albums of theirs to this but there's some classics on here.

Fav Song: Girls & Boys

Overall: 8/10

This band just seems so ahead of their time. There's some classic punk stuff going on, but then you have these shades of the way they would elevate their style in later years. Sort of gothic but not quite there yet. The guitar work on this album is just out of this world and Siouxsie has such an incredible voice. Such an underrated band.

Hong Kong Garden is a weird ass song though.

Fav Song: Switch

Overall: 8/10

I got into Incubus in high school and I've been a pretty big fan ever since. For some reason, despite this being their most popular album, it was the one I always skipped over beyond the singles. I was pretty dumb for doing that because the whole album is pretty great. I still prefer stuff like S.C.I.E.N.C.E. and Morning View (both 10/10 albums for me), but there's so much here to love. Some of the songs here are just hypnotizing and I love them.

Fav Song: Stellar

Overall: 5/10

Well this has got to be one of the horniest albums I've ever listened to. It's not even regular horny, it's just straight depravity. I like it for Tim's voice and I think the instrumentals are great, but those lyrics are definitely a tough thing to ignore. I think he had some better albums, and he wasn't the best dude on the planet.

Fav Song: Sweet Surrender

Overall: 2/10

Not my thing at all. I hate super long songs eith very little variety.

Fav Song: Poor Leno

Overall: 7/10

This was certainly very strange and out there, but honestly I'd rather listen to this than some more shitty britpop or repetitive electronic music. There's a clear vision here and an attempt to do something different that I really admire. It had some brilliant moments and some that fell flat, but the effort should be commended. This is one of those times that I think that most of the people reviewing these albums are kind of close minded.

Fav Song: A Last Straw

Overall: 8/10

This is a crazy album. It's kind of jazzy, but a bit too weird to fit in. It doesn't seem to take itself seriously and Zappa seems to be throwing anything out there that sounds interesting. I had a blast with this and it might be my favourite Zappa that I've heard.

Fav Song: The Gumbo Variations

Overall: 10/10

Despite the fact that Roundabout is my all time favourite song, I think the epicness of Close to the Edge makes it Yes's magnum opus. That song alone is just such an incredible achievement. The other two songs on here are also amazing but man....19 minutes of pure showing off is just so cool to me.

Fav Song: Close to the Edge

Overall: 10/10

So early on in this challenge I got the Portishead album Third and I absolutely fell in love with it. For a couple months I avoided the other Portishead albums, but I needed my fix and I moved on to this one and somehow it was even better than Third. Since then, this has been my most listened to album for two years.

I love every single thing about it. Beth Gibbons has become one of my favourite vocalists ever. I love the strange inflections she adds to everything and her awkward stage presence. I also love that every song feels like they come out of a weird spy movie that doesn't exist. This is one of the best albums ever made.

Fav Song: It Could Be Sweet

Overall: 4/10

Not super enjoyable. I liked the slower songs but the faster paced stuff didn't do much for me. I found this bland, boring and forgettable.

Fav Song: Lion Thief

Overall: 7/10

I'm surprised that a punk album like this was made in 1977. It's dark and almost hardcore at some points. Most punk at the time had a bit of humour to it but this doesn't at all. I think it's pretty great for the most part, but it seemed like every time I was getting into a song, it ended. The songs are too short.

Fav Song: Lowdown

Overall: 10/10

This is such a beautiful pop rock album. The vocals are killer and I love the female backing vocals. The guitars are crisp, the bass is great and the drums are relaxing. I love this so much.

Fav Song: When the Angels

Overall: 8/10

I love the song Tarkus so much. It's so good that it automatically makes this a great album. I have this on vinyl and I pretty much only listen to the song Tarkus. It's probably the only 20 mimute song I can never get tired of and listen to repeatedly. I like the rest of the album, but there's some not so great stuff there. If it wasn't for stuff like Are You Ready Eddy and Jeremy Bender then this would be an almost perfect album.

Fav Song: Tarkus

Overall: 9/10

God, this is a trip. So much funk and swagger going on here, it's one of the most danceable albums in this list. I'm not normally a huge fan of strictly instrumental albums but this is one of the best I've ever heard. Genuinely my only problem is that it's too short!

Fav Song: Watermelon Man

Overall: 8/10

This is a very long live album of a genre that I still haven't really sunk my teeth into beyond the albums I've listened to for this project, but I found it to be pretty engaging and interesting throughout. The blending of instrument was so beautiful at times and I was often closing my eyes to just let the beauty of it all wash over me. It's not something I'll come back to often but I totally get why this could be loved by so many.

Fav Song: Jeep's Blues

Overall: 6/10

First of all, Outtathaway should have opened the album. That song is great.

I had a short phase in high school where I listened to The Vines a lot. That was about 12 years ago now (ew) and I haven't really listened to them since, so this was an interesting experiment to see if I still enjoyed something that I loved in my childhood. For the most part, I still enjoy it. However, now that I've listened to a wider range of music over the years, I can see how derivative and unoriginal their sound is. That doesn't mean the songwriting isn't good, but it feels pretty safe to me in a way that prevents me from loving it the way I used to. Give it a chance and you may get something out of it.

Fav Song: Get Free

Overall: 7/10

This started out as a 10/10 album. I love Joan's voice and I found everything so beautiful. While that beauty never really left, it also started to feel too repetitive at some point. I think this had the potential to be a perfect album but I got a bit bored of it's style by the end. Still, I think this is overall pretty great.

Fav Song: House of the Rising Sun

Overall: 8/10

Very chill, folksy album. I felt like I should have been sitting in a rocking chair with a glass of wine in one hand and petting an orange cat (no other colour will do) with the other.

Fav Song: On the Road to Find Out

Overall: 7/10

This feels like somebody is speaking to you while you're having a dream where you're flying through the air over a field of dandelions.

Fav Song: All I Need