Reviews by meemesker

Though this album of (mostly) covers doesn't hold a candle to his creative breakthrough "Scott 3," I always enjoy Scott Walker. Some of the lyrics are hilariously coarse, especially considering the time period. "Plastic Palace People" hints at the direction he will go in next and is a standout track to me.

A concept album that is actually fun and playful. Doesn't take itself too seriously. The concept is cohesive and works on multiple levels. Flows like butter with the radio broadcast thread. Brilliant editing and transitions, especially for the time. Some of the song structures are like proto prog with their sudden changes and vocal interplay, but still largely meaty, beauty, big and bouncy.

Awe inspiring. I have to go through her entire discography from beginning to end now. I'm reminded of this quote from Billy Preston: "I don't care what they say about Aretha. She can be hiding out in her house in Detroit for years. She can go decades without taking a plane or flying off to Europe. She can cancel half her gigs and infuriate every producer and promoter in the country. She can sing all kinds of jive-ass songs that are beneath her. She can go into her diva act and turn off the world. But on any given night, when that lady sits down at the piano and gets her body and soul all over some righteous song, she’ll scare the shit out of you. And you’ll know—you’ll swear—that she’s still the best fuckin’ singer this fucked-up country has ever produced."

I understand "Loveless" being on here, but this is like its afterbirth being delivered 22 years later. I don't want to listen to this musical placenta.

I found this fairly annoying overall but 3 stars for Guitar Hero.

Although I've never listened to this album before, the songs seem familiar. I thought I was gonna hate it, but it's okay. Has that very 90s indie Americana sound to it that adult contemporary heavy NPR stations everywhere love so much. That middle class rootsiness trying to pretend it's less educated and worldly than it actually is.

I love his voice and the way he does his own backing vocals. It's like he's dancing with himself.

I was excited by the music... at first. I can go for this sort of textured electronic thing. Then the vocals came in and immediately started to get on my nerves. Like a weird piece of candy that has a curious flavor on its outer shell, but when you bite down it becomes sickeningly sweet, and you want to spit it out.

Easily my second favorite Tom Waits album and probably his best. I don't want to live in the world he depicts but goddamn do I love imagining it as he describes it one story at a time. He is the king of texture, especially with his signature outside the box percussion. "Anywhere I Lay My Head" is a fantastic closer, like a New Orleans funeral that tears you up, but also feels triumphant and joyful. Bonus: he mentions both Cincinnati and Minneapolis in the lyrics.

I remember buying CDs one time with my friend in high school. You always got different stuff and shared cause they were so expensive. He picked up this album and I bought something completely forgettable. We took the CDs back to my house and we put this album on my Stepdad's stereo and I remember being absolutely hypnotized from start to finish. I was rendered speechless and just kept looking back and and forth between my friend and speakers in awe. When it was over I was so jealous my friend could go home and listen to it again and again afterwards and I couldn't. This album had a profound effect on me and I'll never forget that experience of first hearing it. I was familiar with several of the tracks from a "Best Of" comp I got from BMG, but the thing that blew me away was that all the other material was just as good. I felt like I had known these songs all my life somehow. Everything just immediately connected with me.

I consider this a perfect album. Maybe the most perfect album I've ever heard. I never skip a track, not even the more experimental "The Murder Mystery" as I find it playful and thrilling. It's unconventional for sure but it's like a pop ditty compared to most of "White Light/White Heat." This album has it all. Such a wide range of moods and emotions. From joy to sorrow, everything in between, and then back again. And I think that's what I like so much about the album: it takes you high, all to knock on your ass and make you cry, just to pick you back up again in triumph. Just an amazing ride. Capturing both those highs and lows, that contrast, even those contradictions, really rings true to my experience of life. And coming from someone as bitter and cynical as Lou Reed can be, this album ultimately feels genuinely uplifting in the most authentic way possible. Truly, deeply, beautiful.

I like this musically but lyrically and vocally it doesn't do as much for me. Good case for a 3.5 but rounded down cause I probably won't go back to listen again.

I found this fairly annoying, especially the King Crimson cover that they called by another name.

Never listened to this earlier, rawer Echo and The Bunnymen before. It's like a more manic Joy Division with a romantic nostalgia for 60s garage rock and psychedelia. I think I prefer their later, more atmospheric albums.

This album came out at a transitional time in my life, so my memories of it aren't as strong as they are with other Radiohead albums. It was right before I moved to Providence, away from everyone I knew, save for my alcoholic girlfriend who was moving with me. It was a fairly lonely, but eye opening year, and I was soaking in all kinds of new things - not least of which was a grim sense of reality that didn't so much start to sink in, but slap me in the face.

This album is great - a natural extension of what they established on their previous two albums. It's Radiohead. It's amazing. But this is where my engagement with them starts to drift away. This was partially due to somewhat painful associations with ex-girlfriends and the fact that I didn't need their existentially sad sound at that time in my life. It would've put me over the edge to wallow in it. That and I think they were starting to repeat themselves a bit here. Not that I don't love the sound but it didn't surprise me in the same way that their previous albums had. I'm not gonna say there were no surprises, but I feel like they had settled into a creative comfort zone of sorts. Understandably so, as they were pretty much universally revered by this point, and could easily rest on those laurels. They were a big fish now, a whale really, and I suppose being that size it was harder to make sharp turns or change directions.

Compared to most bands of the 80s, U2 have a much more timeless sound. It comes across both spare and richly detailed, largely centering around the layered textures of The Edge's guitar. A sound which was their own and well ahead of their time. They found the perfect producers in Eno and Lanois who were able to shape these recordings into both atmospheric art rock and stadium filling anthems. Incredible dynamics of sound and emotion.

Equal parts soft and hard rock - pop at the core with a prog outer shell. Ends up kind of lumpy. Like ELO with more of a proto hair metal angle to it. It's okay. Fun but not overly exciting.

The music has its moments, as does all of Jarrett's ever improvisational style, but perhaps the most interesting thing about this record is the story surrounding the circumstances of its recording. Certainly says something about the triumph of the creative spirit in the face of adversity.

Has this on cassette tape when I was a kid and listened to it quite a bit. Has always stayed with me. So many iconic, timeless songs here.

Goofy in an annoying way. Their first album with Elvis Costello behind the boards is alright, but this is just unfocused mania. I can see how this influenced bands like Blur, but Blur used much more discretion in the way they incorporated this type of playfulness. Sounds like a band in the midst of an identity crisis.

Gotta love the sheer madness of this album. Just completely beautifully bonkers. Brave stuff.