Reviews by meowmeow

Reality is grim enough for me, thanks.

Decent, aside from the vocals.

Oops, it's a Morrissey solo album, the vocals are supposed to be the point, aren't they?

I fucking love AC/DC.

yup, this sure sounds American, all right

This album is in my regular listening rotation already! Fever Ray knows how to create an evocative, surreal dreamscape with nothing but sound. (The stage costumes do help, mind, but they're not NECESSARY.)

So, uh. Seeing as how they were one of my favorites even before I started this project, I fear my five star rating is very much biased.

I loathe the cover art of this album so much. The excessive white space, the incredibly uncomfortable cropping on the photo... it's like a graphic design "what not to do" sample.

It's taken me weeks to convince myself to actually listen to the music lurking behind that awful image. I already know and dislike "Don't You Want Me" which doesn't help, but at least it's the last track so I can hit the stop button without remorse.

Ugh, more of the same. Cold, naked synth and a pretentious douchebag on lead vocals, without much else to distract. It's not "catapult this into the sun" awful but it's getting buried in the "do not relisten" pile so I don't have to look at that awful cover again.

Classic blues rock, on an album short enough that the end sneaks up on you. Excellent listening.

Incredibly influential on future artists? Yup.

A spot in my regular listening rotation? Not so much.

Okay. I realize I have an anti-Beatles bias and a chip on my shoulder about it - trying to preemptively defend myself against the masses who adore them.

I made an effort here to get past my biases.

This album is full of squeaky clean, inoffensive sixties pop. I can definitely hear the foundation for a lot of future music I enjoy being laid down - influential for sure.

I also completely failed to enjoy the listening experience. I turned down the volume twice before I started petting a cat so my hands would be too busy to do that again, and then I got very involved in petting the cat. At least she's happy!

My rating: two stars
My eternally needy little tortie who got an extra half hour of dedicated attention out of this: five slow blinks out of five

The hell of listening to The Smiths is that it's got good instruments, right up my post-punk alley, but then: Morrissey.

Three star ratings are dual purpose for me - it can either indicate indifference or conflicting feelings I can't resolve within the day of the listen. This album gets a VERY conflicted 3.

Holy fucking shit.

Bravo, Keith.

Hot, Blue and Righteous is a skip.

The other nine tracks? I'm vibing. Hard rock is definitely one of my preferred genres, and ZZ Top even make that Southern white guy blues rock thing enjoyable for me.

When I told my husband that I got a Lambchop album for today, he laughed and said "you're not going to like it!"

That man knows me.

This is the music of my nightmares - some sort of slow country pop... thing. I know it's more difficult for me to detect nuance in the music I don't like, and I think that's true for a lot of people - it all just sounds like a reason to scramble for the skip button.

If this is more your style, I'm sorry I'm currently incapable of giving it a fair shot. I tried, multiple times, over the course of hours, and physically recoiled each time. Visceral, gut-level NOPE.

Something about hearing Frankie Goes To Hollywood cover "San Jose (The Way) hit my funny bone in exactly the right way. I hadn't laughed that hard in ages. Thank you for the mood boost, generator!

Absurdity of the cover songs aside, this is peak queer 80s synthpop - I much prefer this to Soft Cell.

Things I try to avoid when listening to music:

sad indie
lo-fi
country vibes
slow songs

This album is SPECTACULARLY not suited to my taste. BRB gonna go relisten to Trout Mask Replica to clean my ears.

This album has been miscategorized, it isn't rock. This is pop music that happens to involve some guitar.

This album sounds like a 14-year-old boy's bedroom smells.

Can I give five stars to Ritchie Blackmore specifically?

No?

Fine, I suppose the whole '72 lineup can share.

Fun music with good energy, but I'm subtracting one star for lyrics that made me cringe when I zoned in enough to pay attention. (At least that only happened twice?)

As "get shit done" music for my ADHD? Fantastic!

Hey, everyone, did you know that this Missy Elliott album is full of Missy Elliott exclusives?!?!