Reviews by meemesker

Like the female vocals. When the dude starts singing on the third track I had the urge to skip but held on. The general sound is fairly nostalgic for me. Goes down easy but not my favorite.

This kind of minimal synthwave is one of my comfort zones. The sound tends to lend itself to a sort of darkness/kinkiness somehow. Seems to go along with the detached approach.

The schtick wears thin pretty quick. Like the female vocals but that's about it. Don't want to listen to it again.

Iggy's first 2 solo albums are as big a part of the legendary Berlin Years as Bowie's trilogy. Everything Bowie produced for someone else was the best material those artists recorded IMHO. This album has Iggy Pop's best individual songs but I feel it doesn't hold up as well as an album compared to The Idiot.

A favorite back in high school. Love the way it flows from track to track. It's cool that it works equally well as dance music and as a headphone ride. Starts with a Kraftwerk sample so you know they know their shit. I like the additive/subtractive way layers of elements/loops are used to build dramatic song structures. Tracks 1-6 are like the party and 7-11 are like the after-party. Used to put "one too many mornings" on mixtapes.

I'm big on Bruce Springsteen up through "Tunnel of Love" but after that there really isn't much that I've been able to get into, including this album. To me this is a good example of where this list of 1001 albums starts to show some cracks: why put the 12th album by a well established artist on the list rather than make way for a younger artist who was truly in their prime during this time period? Don't like many of the production choices. And to top it off, it's too long.

I do not particularly like Led Zeppelin but relatively recently I have come to appreciate the bass playing of john paul jones and drumming of john bonham through some suggested listening by friends. Was going to do an episode of my one track mind with someone on a Zeppelin album but pulled the plug before I got to it. I wish I had. As is common, it might come down to a general distaste for the vocals of Robert Plant for me. This is a long and relatively indulgent album in my opinion and it began to grate on me. They never manage to surprise me. Had to crank the bass up on the EQ to give it the right umph. I feel like this is relatively weak as an album overall. With Zeppelin I feel like there are sort of diminishing returns from their first album onwards. I like much more material from any album of theirs previous to this one. Kashmir and the wanton song are alright but that's about it for me here. Honestly I had to skip some tracks. I much prefer Jack White's stripped down impression of Led Zeppelin to Led Zeppelin itself.

I was so obsessed with their first EP and album when they came out. I really like their balance of instrumentation and electronics/samples. I think their greatest asset above all is Tunde Adebimpe's voice though. They are a great example of a sort of "post modern" band that don't come off too arty as to be inaccessible. Similar to Talking Heads perhaps in that way. Interesting combination of influences that ends up culminating in their own unique sound.

I love Jimi Hendrix on so many levels. However I do think this album suffers from being a bit unfocused due to its length. Love many individual tracks and the psychedelic effects in the production. Love the way certain tracks flow into one another. This may sound crazy but I actually prefer something like the wandering soundscapey "1983" to something like the bluesy "Voodoo Chile" - Its funny cause if they were played live I'd probably prefer it the other way around, but on record (especially on headphones) I lean towards the more experimental, and the face melters don't do as much for me. One of my first CDs was a Jimi Hendrix compilation so many of these songs run deep with me due to nostalgia.

Man, nothing sounds quite like this. Shame she never really caught on in the US and it always amazes me that something so experimental was able to be so popular in the UK/Europe. She definitely paved the way for other iconoclasts like Bjork, etc. Gotta respect the unbridled vision and the genreless expression. Love when artists build their own studios and go into their own little worlds.

Nice blend of songs with vocals and instrumental soundscapes. He was definitely listening to Cluster's "Zuckerzeit"

Electronic pop from this era is like pizza to me. It nearly always hits the spot. I prefer the human league lineup with ware and marsh but this is definitely choice synthpop. There is something about the relative flatness/stiffness of the delivery style that I find endlessly entertaining. An evolution from Kraftwerk that even members of Kraftwerk appreciated.

Don't really have much to say about this one other than I found it fairly boring overall.

My mom had this album and I listened to it as a kid. I can't deny the lightning in a bottle he caught with the opening track. Quite an achievement. Other than that I like the more raucous "everybody loves me" but listening to this years later, nostalgia can't save most of this for me. Generally not a fan of the folky acoustic singer songwriter thing. If he had a more rocking band behind him and more interesting arrangements I might like it more. Sounds like it could use a remaster to my ear.

I remember the opening track "connected." Very of it's time. Some of the lyrics really grate on me. Not really offensive or anything but I wouldn't want to listen this again for any length of time.

Never heard this one before. Interesting blend of influences. Like the dubby basslines throughout. Some of the singing and lyrics irk me a bit. Tend to prefer the more laid back tracks to when they try to rock out.

I think this album is great. It really took me by surprise when I first heard it and it gave me newfound respect for them - particularly Lindsey Buckingham, who is the mad genius behind the more manic bursts on the album (the ones I enjoy the most). This is an amazingly brave album to make as the follow up to a pop masterpiece smash hit. They still pull off the pristine pop songcraft while also unleashing their inner weirdo. It's a win-win. A bit schizophrenic but I think in this case it's all the better for it. A wooden rollercoaster ride and probably a good reflection of their own states of mind at the time.

Billy Bragg was definitely the right choice for this project. And Wilco is an interesting backing band for him. Billy Bragg's voice has the right amount of weight and range to capture the spirit of Woody Guthrie, especially on Way Over Yonder with Natalie Merchant backing him. Wilco manage to make the songs their own, especially California Stars. I think I'd prefer a 2 disc affair with all the Billy Bragg led tracks on a disc and all the Wilco led tracks on another. Overall I think I lean towards preferring the Billy Bragg tracks. An interesting experimental cocktail but one I wouldn't come back to repeatedly (and I should know cause I own this one on CD).

Elliott Smith was a favorite among my friends in college. I like it. There are albums by him that hit harder than this one but still good.

I think there is a certain genius to Jarvis Cocker's sing/speak style and his lyrics. I can see how it's not everyone's cup of tea but I do enjoy the humor and his strange brand of bare it all brutal honesty and just the right amount of shock. There's an interesting balance of deep vulnerability being delivered with such posturing that it is somehow simultaneously both ironic and deeply heartfelt. All feels very autobiographical in a way that few artists let you into so intimately. He doesn't filter himself much and I'm sure he'd be a pain in the ass to hang out with and a mess in his personal life but he is able to reflect the internal dialogue of many states of mind that don't often get put into song in such a direct way. I feel like it takes repeated listens for it to really sink in. Easily my second favorite britpop group after Blur (even though I think that's a very vague and nearly useless term). "The day after the revolution" is certainly an audacious way to end an album. I really like some of the tracks on the bonus disc of the deluxe edition, perhaps even more than many tracks on the album. Tracks like "cocaine socialism", "we are the boys", and "can I have my balls back please".