Reviews by meemesker

Ray Charles is his own genre. He saw no barriers.

I like "Back to Black" far more. My favorite of the lot here was the more laid back hidden track "Brother."

If you close your eyes and pretend this is a lost Flaming Lips album it makes it even more disappointing.

Probably my favorite XTC album. Never realized Todd Rundgren produced it, but it makes sense that he'd be the perfect fit for their unique arrangements and structures. Too bad he and Andy Partridge didn't get along, but they ended up making great work together.

My kids have been absolutely obsessed with Dolly Parton lately after I picked up an old hits collection of hers on vinyl a few weeks back - so this one is very timely for me. I must say, in listening to her records with my kids, I have absolutely fallen in love with her music and the story of her life. I find myself singing her songs to myself in my head all the time (and my kids sing them out loud).

The eponymous song from this album is perhaps the definitive example of how her life and music intertwined to produce some of her best work. My kids particularly love that track, as she adapted it to a picture book that is given away as part of her Imagination Library program, which gives out free picture books every month to any child under 5 - which, by the way, just might be the single most admirable and meaningful charity program I have ever heard of. If you have kids, or are close to any kids, under the age of 5 in the US, make sure they are signed up for the program. It is a Godsend for both parents and children.

All her amazing charity work aside, this is the album where she really came into her own as a songwriter. She then went on an absolute tear from 71-75. And then there is her voice. Her voice is able to pierce me emotionally in a way most other country music isn't able to. She has another album a couple years down the line from this one, also based on her life, called "My Tennessee Mountain Home" that I can't listen to without choking up.

"Coat of Many Colors" is her at the outset of her best work. Absolutely quintessential country music and some of the most sincere music of any kind you should ever hope to hear.

Though I prefer the more manic and experimental Os Mutantes when it comes to Tropicalia, I am sucker for nearly any 60s psychedelia - especially when it incorporates so many influences. Giro.

Familiar with "Lorela", but I hadn't listened to a full album before. Certainly a very unique sound. The closest thing I can equate it to is Kate Bush. I certainly don't begrudge the use of the drum machines and think they are a big part of the reason why this album sticks out in their catalog.

I used to be way into anything Will Oldham/Palace/Bonnie Prince Billy put out after being completely floored one night by The Palace Brothers "Days In The Wake." Nothing else quite ever came close to that initial, nearly transcendent experience for me, but "I See A Darkness" is certainly a good representation of his general style, and undoubtedly considered among his best work.

Will Oldham has this sort of laid back form of vulnerability that I can see could make some people uncomfortable. The kind of thing you either love or hate. And honestly, I can see how he can come across as boring too. But listen closely to those lyrics and you will come to know that he is a very unique songwriter who is able to capture these states of mind that are seldom put into words, let alone to music. His language can be incredibly poetic, even cryptic, but also, at times, disarmingly frank and direct. Both philosophical and mundane. I deeply appreciate that he tempers the one with the other.

His voice seems to embody vulnerability to me. A brave and admirable vulnerability though. It has a sort of confidence in it somehow by paradoxically embracing its flaws and weaknesses. And I think that is underscored in the looseness of the playing. I could see how his songs could sort of collapse under their own weight if they were over produced. But the way they are recorded I get the sense he doesn't want to labor over things, to overthink it, or else he might stifle the spirit of what he's trying to do. It sounds as if he was simply recording things as they came to him. Like he was capturing a moment, or a mood, that was bigger than the songs themselves.

There are some great individual tracks on here such as "Can't truss it" and "Shut Em Down" but overall I don't think it holds up as an album in the same way that "It Takes A Nation..." Or "Fear of a Black Planet" do.

This came out when I was 11 years old and "Under The Bridge" was one of the first songs I ever had a deeper emotional reaction to. It showed me that music had a much wider range of expressive possibilities than I had previously thought. It likely had alot to do with the simple coincidence of my own emotional development at the time, but it will always be an important song for me for that reason.

The rest of the album is, on the whole, a fun, all over the place, almost wreckless affair. In a way I love it for having those extremes contained within it. Sort of runs the gamut emotionally. A quintessential example of CD era bloat, but I can't fault them for the excitement they must have felt at this creative peak - with a great producer behind them who understood them and encouraged them to grow.

It's also a great example of an album recorded in a house, where life and work temporarily converged into the same thing. I'm a huge fan of this method and tend to romanticize the records which are produced this way.

Certainly not a perfect record by any means, but chock full of passion and some real stunners and jams throughout.

This gets a little too spacey for me. I fell asleep while listening to this... multiple times. I prefer the more raw vitality of Spacemen 3.

The Jimmy Miller era was The Stones at their absolute best. The epitome of Rock 'n' Roll, with all its roots and influences unraveled and laid bare. Though there are many timeless anthems on this album, my favorite track is probably "Can't You Hear Me Knocking." I feel like that track is fairly unique in their catalog, in that they start with an absolutely infectious chorus, but curiously choose to put it aside, in favor of going into one of the most exploratory instrumental jams of their career.

Some of the heaviest, most unhinged rock you could hope to hear from its era. Blue Cheer were sort of at the vanguard of the turn towards a heavier, more primal rock sound for what must have been a matter of months before MC5 finally got their sound down on record to kick it up a notch. Hendrix and Cream presaged them of course, and Zeppelin also fits in there somewhere as well, but I'd argue what those bands were doing was a little more sophisticated. This sounds distinctly looser, and as such, is a ripping good time. The ultimate garage band.

At her best she sounds like Kate Bush, who blazed her trail more than 30 years before this album came out. At her worst it's just more contemporary pop product that could work well on the sales floor of any major clothing retailer. The album is definitely appropriately named. I don't know if that's her way of pulling a Led Zeppelin and turning what was originally used as criticism into a badge of honor or what. If so, I respect that, but it's a sort of lazy melodrama. The music has these sweeping dynamics and everything but her voice kind of stays in what must be her comfort zone with this ever present whine to it that I just can't endure for a whole album.

Surprised at how nostalgic this made me feel. This has a generally uplifting vibe that I really miss in more modern pop music. The beat production and sampling technology had reached a place where the hop influence could be incorporated into the songs very fluidly. I think it holds up really well. The Prince cover was a nice touch and the Andre 3000 appearance at the end made me turn my head to check and see if Spotify hadn't gone on shuffle.

This is where the Stones really start to step it up and creatively branch out in the recording studio. Undoubtedly inspired by The Beatles "Rubber Soul" doing the very same thing the year before. I mean, The Stones started recording this album 3 days after "Rubber Soul" was released. I don't think that was a coincidence. They were in a sort of musical "space race" with The Beatles at the time. Beatles comparisons aside, this is a great album, and where they really start to come into their own as songwriters. They certainly have a distinctly darker perspective - which can sometimes come across as overbearing and sometimes as refreshing, depending on my mood. Although "Mother's Little Helper" was one of the first Stones songs I really fell in love with, I think I prefer the US version for its inclusion of "Paint It, Black." What a way to open an album.

Totally C average rock. As enjoyable as a Big Mac and fries. Any song from this album would fit in nicely on the soundtrack to a 1980s teen comedy.

My favorite thing on this album is definitely the jaw harp. Really adds to the atmosphere and almost sounds like a synthesizer at times. Surprised that an instrument which seems so simple, almost like a toy, is able to be so expressive and versatile.

Full of anthems. Practically a greatest hits, except "Sex Machine" does seem a bit like filler (though it might be a fun jam when live). Wish they would've swapped it out for "Soul Clappin II" and "My Brain" which ended up as bonus tracks on the reissue.

This legitimately sounds like it comes from a seedy underground pre-internet version of the darkweb. They would fit right in playing a closing number at the Bang Bang Bar in Twin Peaks: The Return. I'd imagine the Venn diagram overlap of people who like gory B horror movies and LSD users is where you find most of your fans of The Butthole Surfers. This is only saved from being a 2 by "Human Cannonball" and its driving rhythm - which I genuinely like. Other than that it just sounds like some weird nerds that are into some dark shit getting revenge on the world by torturing people with their music.