Reviews by mikey_nc

It’s rare that an album realizes its mission statement as fully as this one. Just as Eno desired, it is “interesting but ignorable.” Very pleasant and calming. I don’t know if I could call it a favorite just by its nature, but I’ll likely play it again in the future while working.

Ambitious and messy with a near incomprehensible “story.” This is worth another look, especially with good songs here like The Carpet Crawlers, but I can’t say I found this as life-changing as Peter Gabriel might have imagined it to be.

Muse’s “deep” “revolutionary” aesthetic is corny as hell, but I’m a child of the 2000s and this shit is ingrained inside of me. Knights of Cydonia on Guitar Hero 3? The Twilight baseball scene with Supermassive Black Hole? Take a Bow in one of the Watchmen trailers? It’s a 3 but my cultural brainwashing really wants to jack it up to a 4.

A smooth, soothing, trippy funk odyssey. Most of it is just background music for the movie, but it’s damn fine background music.

A wild fiery sweaty whirlwind of rock music. I can see the influence it had on punk, but it feels like something totally apart from that, like a fusion of garage rock with free jazz that was never followed up on or realized beyond this recording. A great album, if not exactly an everyday listen.

Uh geez. Good luck with all that stuff, Nick.

Grim and gloomy Dracula ballads about seedy people. Nick Cave has a definite thing going on and I don’t think it’s for me, but I appreciate that he’s committed so hard to said thing.

Weird herky-jerky irony-pop full of 50s send-ups. This album is a pretty decent example of how expansive the idea of “punk” was in the early days; these guys were playing the same venues as Television and the Ramones, somehow.

Radiohead soundtracks the digital age in terrifying fashion. Probably not their best album, but their most original and daring recording for sure.

A heavy sludgy album with a kinda sorta melodic approach. I liked it OK though I wasn’t moved by it.

A master singer-songwriter album. I’m a little ashamed to admit it but I’ve kind of grown off Joni over the course of this project—her reedy warble that’s never quite on tempo is incredibly distinct, but it does eventually get old. But she still flexes it to some effect in this recording, with the spare arrangements and bright open guitar tunings framing it well. And of course she hit an early and remarkable peak as a songwriter here, both in love (A Case of You) and loss (Little Green).

Inane, stupid, and repetitive. Albums like this could kill any sense of poptimism inside of me.

Here’s some words over and over badoinka doinka doinka zooooom brrrrp doinka doinka

A very modest and mild album, almost excessively so. There is something to chew on here and I’m open to returning, but I’m not as compelled by this as some of her other music. I think her sound sometimes has an unfortunate tendency to dissolve into the musical equivalent of watercress.

A solid modern rap album with some strong beats. I’m not a huge fan of Simz as a rapper, but she’s certainly not bad. The best British rap has offered up so far.

OK fine, yes, that’s one of the most beautiful albums I’ve ever heard. I’m a prog rock guy now. I’m not happy about this but the heart wants what it wants.

Loaded front to back with classics. I’m not quite as into CCR’s sound as I once was, but the quality and consistency here is hard to beat.

Bob’s best album. His voice is crackling with cynical anger, his lyrics point insane and vivid portraits on every song, and the Nashville session musicians are cooking. (I’m particularly partial to Charlie McCoy’s guitar on Desolation Row.) This album will probably not convince many haters, but for me the core of his talent is in this recording.

I like the chillness of this, and there are attempts at darkness and variety, but as a whole package it’s way too repetitive and uninspiring.

Mysterious, refined, and earthy psychedelic pop. Runs out of steam a bit in the second half, but still one of the best baroque/psychedelic albums of the late 60s.