Reviews by meemesker

If this came out just a couple years earlier than it did I'd be much more impressed with it. But to me it's got nothing on artists like DJ Shadow, Daft Punk, The Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, etc. I mean it's fun and all but it just seems to lack the depth and range of those artists I mentioned above that preceded them. And as impressive as the number of samples on this album is, I don't think they utilized them as well as artists like Girl Talk or J Dilla would go on to do a few years later. I could see this working in a much more interesting way as beats for MCs to rap over, but as is, nothing really sticks out to me, with the exception of "Frontier Psychiatrist," which I feel is a standout track.

Starts super strong on the first track! This whole thing sounds fantastic on headphones too. However, over the course of its long, double-album duration, I end up liking about 1/2 of the tracks. I am partial towards the more upbeat and percussion heavy numbers from the first half of the album. Love the arrangements and creative structures. Would be 5 stars if they would've pared it down to a single album.

I like the general sound of this album but somehow nothing ever seems to stick even after repeated listens. It loses its momentum whenever they wander into a looser instrumental jam section. Cute album cover though.

Though I prefer "Fear of a Black Planet," as I feel that is where they perfected what they established here, this is the breakthrough. This album holds up amazingly well over time, even when you compare it to other albums that came later in its wake. Chuck D's voice is absolutely commanding, and I even appreciate Flavor Flav for his levity and the contrast of style he provides, but it's the beats that completely floor me. I love the fast paced, noise-filled collage. Skillfully controlled chaos. It's high art.

So hard to listen to this without constantly comparing it to his father's music. I really wish he had gone in a completely different direction so that you could listen to his music more objectively. I can understand why he would want to build on what his father had built though, especially as at this point his father had pretty much stopped recording music altogether. He does a good job trying to maintain his father's legacy I suppose, but to me this just sounds like an edited down Fela with a dash more Juju/Highlife thrown in here and there. Being recorded so crisply doesn't help it to my ear either. It has its moments but mostly it just makes me want to go listen to Fela instead.

All I had to do was look at the cover to know it was some British thing I've never heard of. This could be an exciting prospect except that it turned out to be some kind of thoroughly bland nostalgia act. Wait, can you even call it a nostalgia act when the person making the music wasn't alive during the time period they are emulating? He sounds very reverent to his inspirations and all, but he also sounds utterly boring. Not only that, but the clean modern production kind of neuters the aesthetic. And his voice just simply isn't capable of pulling off what he's trying to achieve. I'm five songs in and I really don't want to finish this...

Had this one on vinyl back in the day and have always enjoyed it. It's his most popular album and it deserves to be. Though I may like some of his other albums slightly more, this is still a masterpiece. It has a little bit of everything, from the wistful folk and country flavored ballads that seem to be his forte, to the intensely arranged pieces like "A Man Needs a Maid" or "There's a World," to some genuine sing along rockers like "Are You Ready for the Country" or "Alabama." He covers alot of ground and even sneaks in some live material while he's at it. You might think it would come out as an incoherent mess but it all seems to blend together quite well. Ends up sounding like a cohesive album to my ears. The 2009 remaster sounds gorgeous.

Absolutely iconic. I love that, in addition to some crate digging, they recorded their own music to sample and loop. Just brilliant. I'm a sucker for the downtempo beats and the general moodiness.

I love The Kinks. Especially on albums like this where they weave a tapestry of these down to earth musical short stories.

Though I like the general sound of this, after listening to it several times nothing really stuck out to me.

This album has its moments. Some of those moments are inside the side-long multipart first track, some on the tracks from side 2. I kind of wish the songs on side one were just separated out into distinct tracks of their own. Not being a big Rush fan I was unaware how much their earlier material sounds so much like a proggier Led Zeppelin. They seem to be on the road to their own more distinct sound here but it's still a ways off from something like "Moving Pictures," which I enjoyed much more. I can see why people like this, it's fun and sort of peak AOR classic rock in a way, but ultimately it's not for me. 2 stars for Ayn Rand references.

Can't say I enjoyed this. The vocal delivery style is so flat and lazy I don't understand how he was the vocalist. I don't find him a particularly effective screamer either. Certainly someone else in The Blockheads had to have had a better voice? Also, obnoxious cleverness really isn't my thing when it comes to lyrics, especially when it's just a relentless barrage of it. Musically it's fine I guess? Nothing that grabbed me enough to distract me from the vocals or lyrics though. Definitely wanted to skip a few tracks as I went through but I persevered, for what it's worth, which wasn't much. Seemed to get worse as it went on. Will be avoiding in the future.

I think this might have been the first album I ever owned. I had it on cassette, and if I remember correctly, I got it for Christmas from my Mom. As a child of the 80s this was completely omnipresent and I was definitely a big fan. He has an amazing voice and the production is incredibly dynamic. An exciting ride with all kinds of unexpected twists and turns in its layers and details. There is so much to love here but I feel like the album is unfortunately sort of mortally wounded by the inclusion of "The girl is mine." If you removed that one song, this would be 5 stars for me, but that song is so cloying it's almost nauseating.

T Rex is consistently good throughout Bolan's all too brief career. This is easily my second favorite T Rex album, just a smidgen behind "Electric Warrior." Every song is so enjoyable and they all mesh well together. He makes rock and roll sound so fun and inviting. Doesn't take itself too seriously but at the same time feels very genuine and heartfelt. Lighthearted perhaps, but by no means "lightweight." The songs still manage to resonate emotionally without getting too down or sorry for themselves; something people tend to equate with "serious" music. "The Slider," by contrast, is a nimble celebration of life and is a joy to listen to in that regard. I think it's an absolutely valid take, which is often overlooked artistically for some reason. I guess most people, or perhaps critics, would rather stew in their own heartache and misery? Not me, give me T Rex any day.

I don't typically like live albums but this one is an exception. I suppose it's technically a hybrid of live recordings and studio overdubs, which is maybe what makes the difference for me. Neil is so emotive, whether it's on a delicate ballad or a sing-along rocker. Great performances here. I find "Thrasher" to be especially moving. I consider this his last truly great 5 star album before he fell into the morass of the 80s. Like so many other musicians that came up in the 60s and 70s, he had a hard time adjusting.

We all love CCR in my house. This is probably their most fun record on the whole. It's still got some heavy hitters though, like "Run Through The Jungle" and "Long As I Can See the Light." They really make "Heard It Through the Grapevine" their own too. I'd listen to this nearly anytime.

I enjoy this type of "conscious" rap and it makes me nostalgic for the time period when it was a bigger part of the pop culture landscape.

I dig Dr John's unique brand of psychedelic funk. There's nothing quite like it and it's timeless. At some points it genuinely feels like it's part of a voodoo ritual, other times it's all mellow feel good vibes. Either way it's always dripping with soul.

Pretty much sums up the sound of 1987 as I remember it. The late 80s was a transitional time in pop music production. Like a teenager awkwardly growing into their new features. It's funny cause if this album were recorded just a few years earlier, or even a few years later, I would probably like it alot more than I do. As is, it just sounds too clean and polished to my ear, to the point of being antiseptic to the soulful qualities that he obviously exudes. The best track by far is "As Yet Untitled" where he is unaccompanied by instruments and you can finally get a real sense of the raw power he is wielding.

I found this to be mildly boring and frequently irritating.