Reviews by mikey_nc

Thin and shadowy rock music, buzzing with feedback but also chiming with melody. Great atmosphere and great songs. For my money, this is the successful master release that follows the rough pre-alpha build that was Psychocandy.

Best song: Happy When It Rains

At first this seemed pretty boring, and I guess it honestly is, but I enjoyed it. It can get dirge-y, but it’s also well-written, well-produced, and quite calming.

Best song: The Ocean

A lot to chew on with this one. I can honestly say I’ve never heard a band with a sound quite like theirs. I was sometimes entranced and sometimes bored, but I was never not fascinated by their originality. Very much worth hearing, and even worth re-listening, even if I’m not a huge fan of it at the end of the day.

Best song: Season Cycle

It’s Elvis! Kind of what you’d expect from post-army Elvis, and kind of all the same. Nice vocals and pleasant sound, though.

Best song: Such a Night

A dour and mysterious album that infuses 90s alt-rock with some country sound. Sometimes a little too serious and mopey, but sometimes quite good.

Best song: You Just Have to Be Crazy

Classic Marley front to back. I did jolt a bit at the line about bombing a church.

Best song: No Woman, No Cry

Smoother and softer than earlier RHCP albums, mostly to good effect. This is a weird album because I think they became kind of boring and milquetoast after it, but here, the synthesis between their early party-funk sound and their later adult-alternative sound works for me.

Best song: Otherside

One of the kings of country at the top of his game. Quick and punchy, rollicking one minute and mourning the next. A quintessential country album.

Best song: Honky Tonk Heroes

Old man rock. There are some decent tunes here, but just incredibly unexciting.

Best song: Moon on Your Pyjamas

One of those albums where I really appreciate being exposed to it, even if I don’t necessarily love it. Kind of muted and verges on boring, but still a valuable and unique mixture of sounds and cultures.

Best song: Banga

I like the sound of 60s pop rock and there are some great moments here, but it’s all just a little quaint. Then the last song is pleasant but almost impossibly corny.

Best song: I’m Not Your Stepping Stone

A prickly album, forcing the anger and aggression of punk inwards and spewing it back out in complicated and compartmentalized form. A little unfriendly, but pretty rewarding.

Best song: Shut the Door

Wild, weird, colorful, and creative. A great mix of psychedelia, soul, jazz, and hip-hop.

Best song: Inferno

This album often sounds light, but it’s richly dark, searing with intensity and instability just under the surface. Pretty odd, but really unique, passionate, and purposeful. Great stuff.

Best song: Fetch the Bolt Cutters

Sharp and definitely well-made, but kind of uninspiring with no great songs (but some good guitar riffs). I have always found Aerosmith overrated, so maybe I came in with a bias, but I’ve heard some hype for this album and was ready to have my opinion changed. Sadly, it wasn’t.

Best song: Sick as a Dog

It’s raw, it’s dirty, it’s stupid, it’s repetitive, it rocks.

Best song: Psycho

Oh yay it’s these guys again. This is easily better than Bug, but the end of Tarpit, the butchering of Just Like Heaven, and the singer sounding like he's on opioids all combine to bring it down.

Best song: Little Fury Things

I am always okay to admit when I just don’t “get” an artist, and I am never really going to “get” Beyonce. I am a straight white guy and her music is not really for me. This album is solid, certainly well-made, but stinks way too much of 2010s pop trends and polish. Still, this is an interesting album since you can see the perception of her transforming from pop-soul diva to Serious Artist Making Serious Statements. Her own conception of herself seems to be changing in the same way—I don’t know why else she would include a whole-ass excerpt of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie giving a talk on feminism. The transformation would solidify on Lemonade, but it is kind of funny to see an early draft of it on that song, where you have her trying to mash together serious commentary on women’s worth with her roaring “I’m the shit, bow down bitches.” I guess for a lot of people it synthesizes perfectly… but again, not really for me.

Best song: Blue

Weepy and boring. I could get behind the atmosphere of this, but no compelling songs or performances.

Best song: Madeleine-Mary?

Well that’s wildly different from her last couple albums I heard. Far inferior to Stories from the Sea, but not bad, really—just kind of boring? This one really fails to grab me in sound or vibe.

Best song: Bitter Branches