Reviews by meemesker

Vibrato vox very much not my thing. First track is undeniably powerful but I can't take a whole album of it. Emotionally exhausting.

So smooth and polished there was nothing for my ear to grab onto.

Holy shit, this was recorded at Pachyderm in Cannon Falls! Another masterpiece recorded there by Steve Albini. This album really has room to breathe and feels very natural and three dimensional with some nice production touches in the right places to punch up the drama. Her semi-unhinged performance is breathtaking. Quite a thrill ride and it brings me right back to that era, although, I'm ashamed to say, despite being peripherally aware of her, I slept on this in its time. I regret that now. If this came out today it would still sound as fresh and relevant as ever.

Starts as a psychedelic fever dream but then kinda goes all over the place, ending on a bizarre sarcastic joke. If the material were more consistently psychedelic like the opening track or "Get Me to the World on Time" it'd be 4 stars but I have to round down to 3 for the jarring tone shifts.

I admire the brave vision of scale and structure in this album, but when it comes to jazz, I tend to like smaller arrangements where individual players are easier to isolate. I can definitely see this album working well as the soundtrack to an avant garde dance performance, as was the supposed intent, but it's not something that I'd really want to listen to on its own. I'm definitely more of a "Mingus Ah Um" fan.

It worked for me until it got to "It Was A Pleasure Then." Had to skip that one. Definitely has some beautiful moments, but also has its share of painful ones. Wouldn't put on for my own pleasure but wouldn't leave the room if someone put this on. I know she didn't like the string arrangements but I honestly can't imagine it working without them - it'd be too spare. The flutes are a different story though - I feel like they are a bit too ornamental and out of place. Definitely uncool those arrangements were added without her permission, but it still ended up being a halfway decent album.

Some of this I like, some of this I find fairly annoying. I definitely like Bjork's voice but I wish the dudes would just leave the singing to her.

I could appreciate this if I was drunk and someone who was really passionate about the album put it on and talked it up to me as we continued to pound em down. Being sober I don't really have any sort of emotional reaction to it whatsoever. It sounds like Dylan and The Dead getting loose with a producer who fetishizes a really clean sound. It's that clean sound that I find subtly off putting.

I deeply, madly love The Eurythmics and I feel they are severely underrated. To me they are THE sound of the 80s. One of my first real musical memories is being in my Mom's Honda Civic, hearing "Sweet Dreams" come on the radio, and being completely hypnotized by it. I can even remember the street we were on. As dark as this album tends to be, I associate it very strongly with my childhood. It is definitely where my fascination with electronic music began. I have always admired the way The Eurythmics combine cold, dark electronics with warm and soulful elements - Annie Lennox's incredible, shape-shifting voice being the warmest and most soulful element of all. It's an approach that seems like it would be easy to replicate but honestly I don't know if I've ever heard it better than on this album.

This is where Brian Wilson truly started to shine in his songwriting/arranging and studio alchemy. I used to have a nice copy of this on vinyl that I picked up from a thrift store back when you could still find decent records in thrift stores for a steal. I really like that they play with the album format and had different moods for each side of the record. The inclusion of "Bull Session with Big Daddy" at the end is sort of baffling but oh well - ah youth... Favorite tracks are "When I Grow Up" and "She Knows Me Too Well."

I deeply revere his 60s and 70s albums, but for me personally, he has a sharp cut off date in the 80s. His voice got flatter then and his style of arranging changed to where I no longer enjoyed the sound. Still a great songwriter all the way through to the end but honestly I'd rather hear other people interpret these songs. Hearing him croak them out on his deathbed is just sad. While listening to this album I just kept trying to imagine the songs being sung in his youthful voice.

Songs from this album keep showing up in my Spotify Discover Playlist and I'm not sure why. I guess it's because I generally like the kind of 70s singer-songwriter albums he's trying emulate (or lampoon - I'm not exactly sure). But I don't like his take at all. I can't stand his constant stream of cleverness. This album is like one big ironic joke that's lost on me.

This is where The Cure really started forming the identity they would come to be known by. I am a recent goth convert so listening to this makes me feel right at home in the gloom. Could've done without "The Final Sound" but other than that this album is a solid skeletal framework for what was to come and I really enjoyed it.

The big retro arrangements are putting lipstick on a pig. Same goes for the album cover. And an ironic joke for a title? Har har har... Holy fuck there must be eight dozen albums from 2008 alone that deserve to be on the list in place of this one.

I can definitely see why Metallica has a mass appeal beyond a strictly metalhead audience. They are at once the epitome of metal and yet they sort of transcend the genre in many ways. Although I ultimately find this album fairly exhausting, I definitely have a newfound respect for this output from their prime.

Oh man, I think I just fell in love... It's funny cause I've listened to this album before and enjoyed it and everything, but for some reason, listening to it tonight, this album just absolutely knocked me out. Maybe it's because we're now two years into a global pandemic, in a time of increased social unrest/polarization, and quite possibly on the brink of World War III, but this album is really speaking to me right now (in a way it didn't a few years ago when I listened to it last). There is so much I love about this album but the thing that impresses me most is probably its casualness and playfulness. It's so loose and laid back that it somehow comes back around to coming across as cocky and confident to me. Like the genius just rolls out of him so naturally and effortlessly regardless of his mood. He doesn't have to be "on" to express the truth. Some real honesty here. And that's the other thing I really appreciate about this album: that it captures these states of mind that are not often put into songs, especially at the time it came out. Really shows you that funk isn't all just feel good party jams and I appreciate that. Another thing that I appreciate is the incorporation of the drum machines. Not only is this album an absolute pillar of funk, but it's the album that pretty much single handedly legitimized the use of drum machines in popular music - so I have to give my thanks for that. All that and the mysteriously murky mix give the album a very distinct sound which, to my ear, keeps it a surprisingly fresh and intriguing listen after all these years.

I like the 50s Elvis and I even like the later "comeback" Elvis but this stuff in the early and middle 60s just doesn't hold up for me over the course of an album. I think the backing vocals of The Jordanaires are what blow it for me actually. I'd rather just have Elvis front and center with a stripped down backing band behind him like in the Sun days.

I'm not a big fan of Eric Clapton or Duane Allman but I was gonna let this pass with a 3 after listening to the first few tracks. It's at least more engaging than Clapton's solo stuff. Then I noticed there's an hour and 15 minutes to this blues rock wankfest! And I've got not one, but two guitar heroes trying diddle my ears - sometimes from both directions at once! No thanks.

On the first side of this they are pretty much on fire. Loses some steam on side 2 but still very enjoyable. Psychedelic pop gets a modern makeover. Genuine fun.

I'm normally not a huge fan of live albums but I'll have to make an exception for this. The energy is electric, with a feedback loop between JB and the crowd. I find it completely enthralling.