Reviews by meemesker

First track is strong and it's no wonder they wanted to lead with it. Second song fits the mood of the first nicely, but when they suddenly attempt reggae on track 3, I start to question things. Track 4 sounds like outright filler. Track 5 has a little more going on, but just feels like slightly more ornate filler. They're more like "themes" than songs. The Os Mutantes cover adds nothing to the original, nor this album. They're simply musically globetrotting now. If the moniker weren't already taken by a much more deserving band, they should've called themselves The Tourists. The rest of the album is slow, boring, and forgettable. The vast majority of tracks feel like they were whipped together to support their opening single, rather than being a proper album. They should have spent more time developing things, and hired someone besides their goofy friend from high school to design the cover.

This is like channel surfing inside Jack White's brain.

It's when he does that breathy spoken word shit which completely prevents me from enjoying this, or even taking it seriously. Particularly when they stereo pan it all over the place. Almost sounds like self parody at times.

A far less dreamy Boards of Canada. The tracks with vocals take me out of the trance, and sort of ruin the experience for me.

I like much of what they're doing musically, but for me it's the vocals that bring it down. They're so flat and lifeless. I'm mean they're consistent in their relaxed, chilled out way, but there's hardly any emotional dynamics throughout. Makes it so nothing really sticks out.

Impressive for '82. Certainly ahead of the game in many ways. So many subgenres emanated from here. I actually think the lo-fi recording quality gives it a nice textured atmosphere, and separates it from most other 80s metal recordings, which tended to be much too clean and polished. This is right between a 3 and a 4 for me, but I'll round it up to 4 because it's such a pivotal piece of metal history and I'm glad I'm now familiar it.

I've already listened to one desperate plea for attention from this prick for 1001 (The Marshall Mathers LP), and I tried to give this one a fair chance to see if it was any different, but by the time I got to "'97 Bonnie and Clyde," I had to pull the plug. No point in putting myself through another one of these adolescent shock fests. There's an abundance of amazing music from Michigan, so why is it that their white rappers are so atrocious? It's like Kid Rock, Eminem, and ICP are locked into some kind of never ending class clown contest.

Dude, I'm here for the sentiment, their attitude, and energy, but Jello Biafra sounds like they spliced Bryan Ferry and the dude from The B-52's' vocal chords together in a back alley operation.

The glam metal thing didn't work out for them so they decided to get all hard instead? I mean I guess they succeeded, but at what cost? I'll tell you what cost: nu-metal.

He certainly has an exciting singing style, and I can hear where Scott Walker and Leonard Cohen got some inspiration, but it's a live album... And not only that, they recorded the crowd in the most abrasive and obnoxious way possible.

The thing that really strikes me in listening to this is just how dark the early 90s really were, when songs about kids killing themselves in front of their classmates, or thinly veiled incest, could be mainstream top 40 hits.

This kind of garagey psych pop is like comfort food to me. Although they're trying to break from their manufactured pop image, and into being a "real" rock band, by doing more of their own songwriting, the standout tracks are still the Brill Building numbers.

If I wanted to listen to AC/DC, or some shit like that, I would, not this desperate reinvention.

I was expecting this to be a purely hip hop affair, but it's quite a rollercoaster ride, hopping genres all over the place - from funk to electro to r&b ballads to gospel, and yes of course, the primordial ooze from which hip hop evolved is here as well. The song "The Message" is practically a template for the hip hop that would come to dominate in its wake. It's the keystone of modern hip hop, upon which everything else was built. I actually found this album quite impressive in its versatility, and was entertained not knowing exactly what would come next.

The music of my dreams. Precisely the hazy world I want to stay lost in forever. Ideal for introverted headphone rides late at night. Rich, deeply textured, evocative, and hypnotic, to the point of practically being intoxicating - all without ever being overbearing. An exquisite example of what electronic music can do when freed from a purely dance oriented context.

Part of my problem is that I tried to listen to this in the car on a drive between Cincinnati and Cleveland during a rainstorm. It's definitely not road trip music. I'm generally a big fan of Bjork, and admire her seemingly boundless creativity, but even when I went to listen on headphones, there's something about this that still rubbed me the wrong way. Felt a bit lost and searching, dissonant and abrasive. I'd bet this would be amazing to see performed live though.

I'm a child walking around the mall in 1986 with my mother and I'm happy.

East Coast Jazz and Soul inflected beats are probably my favorite flavor of Hip Hop, and Premier is undoubtedly a master chef. Guru's flow may sound dated now, but there is depth and wisdom in his words.

I had the leaked bootleg of this before it was officially released, so there was a fair amount of mystique surrounding it for me. Since I was somewhat disappointed in his previous album "Sea Change," I saw "Guero" as more or less a return to form. For the most part it's a fun, lighthearted romp, but one that comes from a personal place. I certainly welcomed it with open arms when it arrived, but it ended up being the last Beck album I bought a physical copy of. From here on out he basically just rehashes different combinations of his earlier output with some tweaks in the production. When Beck started out, each of his albums always had a fairly radical shift in style between them, and I always looked forward to that. I enjoyed this album, but it was the first album of his that failed to really surprise me.

A blend of Radiohead and Blur, with a dash of Oasis. I didn't mind it at first, but as the album drug on, I could no longer stand it.