Reviews by meowmeow

Influential on pop culture for sure, but we've got a severe case of listener/music mismatch going on when I have to white-knuckle my way through a 63 minute album over the course of three hours, taking breaks between every track.

Absolutely, brutally, profoundly not to my tastes.

The retro-spacey synth thing is definitely right up my alley.

Good grief, that's a lot of rouge they're wearing.

The music itself isn't bad, but I didn't particularly enjoy it and am perfectly content with hearing it precisely once before I die.

Props to Nico for not giving up on the entertainment business altogether after having... THIS kind of botched production job on her work.

This is a very good lesson on how vital it is to find the right producer!

Even the most well-made movie soundtrack is still, ultimately, a movie soundtrack. There's not quite enough substance to elevate it to a five star rating for me... presumably the experience of watching the film is what provides that substance. (I watch maybe two or three movies a year, it's not my preferred form of entertainment.)

Björk is one of those artists I have to be in the correct mood for, since she makes that sort of ethereal dreamscape music with an extra helping of eccentricity... but when I AM in the correct mood, it's a delightful experience. Mellow weird goodness.

If you think New Wave is a good time and 80s themed parties are your jam, this is essential listening. Everyone else will probably be just fine not hearing this album before they die.

The album cover deliberately looks like a printing error, how delightfully Eno!

The music is exactly what the title implies: soothing background music to hopefully take one's stress level down a notch, not at all intended for the active listening involved in doing this 1001 albums thing. Luckily for our pal Brian, I'm happy to rate music based on how well it fills a niche, not just how well it holds up as active listening.

Would I put this on when I'm in the mood for music? No. When I'm just trying to quietly coexist with my cats and maybe read a book? That's the time for this album. Fantastic if applied correctly.

Getting this back to back with Bebel Gilberto was a little odd. South America weekend!

There's some definite contrast between Bebel's samba and the electronic tango of Gotan Project, though. I dug the vibe of this album more, it's got rhythms that actually held my interest for active listening.

Overall, a fun experience! I'll probably revisit this album at a later date.

Pleasant, but not particularly interesting. Background music for sure.

I suspect that this might be an album that grows on me with future listens, but today it didn't quite sit right. Will probably revisit this review with the edit option in a few weeks.

Okay, this is one of those albums where you don't need to see the release date before you listen to know when it was made. This is what 1997 sounded like.

Jack Elliott earned the Ramblin' in front of his name for being garrulous, so it's hardly a surprise that he's chatty between songs even on a recording.

The music itself is decent, but nothing to write home about.

Meh. Not nearly as interesting as the cover suggests. I quite literally fell asleep listening to this album...

That said, it's not offensive in its blandness. It gets the three stars of "meh" mediocrity.

Laibach, a band with an intentional approach to art that's meant to make people deeply uncomfortable with human nature. Fascism does lie deep within the hearts of many people, as we've seen demonstrated VERY clearly over the past year, and Laibach's artistic style has been shining a light on that uglier side of humanity for decades.

So I'm not going to judge them for the ambiguous political message. I'm going to judge them for the music.

The music is deep growly industrial! The core of my music taste formed in 1997-98, and one of the artists I was listening to the most at that time was Rammstein. Laibach sounds similar enough that I enjoyed the hell out of this listen. Judge me if you want!

teenage memories, whacked in the face by nostalgia

Overproduced plaintive wailing about heartbreak is NOT something I vibe with. One or two Adele songs? Great! A whole album of it? Tedious.

I don't know what I was expecting, but this absolutely blew me away. Wow.

Iconic.

Oh. Aerosmith.

Time to separate the art from the artist again, because Steven Tyler has a dumpster fire where his personality ought to be.

Yep, good guitar, good drums, Steven fucking Tyler on vocals. Decent enough on average.