Reviews by mikltabey

It’s Rain Dogs. Rain Dogs? THE Rain Dogs?

Its’s weird and sometimes abrasive, and I’m sure I’m lucky that I first heard it as a young hipster 25 years ago. If I heard it for the first time now, would it be 5 stars? You know…. maybe so. It’s incredible.

Pretty good, and it would’ve been amazing to be there in person. Sam’s voice seems a little more rough than studio recordings, which I guess I prefer. But still a solid 4!

It wasn’t greeeeeat, and The Na-Na Song got this a 2.

This sounds like it’s time, and I like All I Wanna do (and her later hits), but this filler just did not do it for me.

This one didn’t hit me the same as his others we’ve listened to. Maybe I’ll rate it higher upon another listen.

Some reviews on here complain about “Why does Ella Fitzgerald get a box set?” “Why is this so long?”

From what I can tell, these songs were recorded for this release, so I can accept it as being considered an album in the way we think about what an album is.

That being said, this is THREE HOURS and someone can’t be expected to listen to the entire thing in one sitting. But I did.

Ella is fantastic. These songs are great. The sound is good. But, I don’t think you can expect anything to maintain 5 stars for three hours. In the past, an album length alone has dragged some albums down a star. I think here the length causes there to be songs that took this down a peg.

That this album is so long and still gets a four from me says a lot. You could make one or two five star albums out of this by selecting the best tracks. The rest is still very good. She’s a legend for a reason. I’d love to have this in my vinyl collection just to listen to a random side of record every now and again.

A solid 4. A lot of fun beats and instrumentation going on. I could see me putting this on in the kitchen while I’m cooking.

Oh, yeah. That’s the shit. I’ve heard it before. I’ll listen again. Linda shines through on this one.

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. Waaaaaaaay too long, though.

Body Count was cool. The whole thing was cool. The track where he just talks about other rappers and how much he likes and respects them is an interesting contrast to today’s rap landscape.

Overall, I don’t think this being shorter would’ve helped it or the length hurt it. It’s just a solid four, and I’m surprised because we’ve gotten this era of rap album before and they haven’t been this good and I was not initially excited about it.

Also, he predicts that he will never win a Grammy and that Mandela will never win a Nobel prize. Both these things were wrong, and I think within in the next year or two. Did Ice use reverse psychology?

This was great. I think the organ tone sold me on it. One I’ll definitely pick up if I see the vinyl for sale.

When this came up, I immediately wrote it off as another unimpressive British band that the editor remembers fondly from their youth in the UK.

That might be true, but I actually quite liked it. It’s goofy and a bit hokey, but a lot of fun and I can’t deny I enjoyed listening to it more than a 3 album.

This was fine. I didn’t not like it, I guess.

Yeah, you know. I get why people make fun of this band, and I also can see why people like them. I’ve never really actively listened to them, but knew the hits.

Unsurprisingly, I didn’t like this. But, I don’t begrudge people that like/love Coldplay. Good for them! And I’m not going to hate on a band who puts out music that brings so many people joy.

Dang! When this came up, I rolled my eyes and was not excited. We just listened to an album by Cohen and I gave that one a 4.

This album started out a five for me. His aged voice, I think, is where I was taken aback. I still stand by the first few songs being five stars. The rest of the album settled in to his Cohen-ness.

I get the myth behind this and Bowie’s Darkstar. Two old legends releasing an album about death and then immediately dying. This one is better.

This was a nice enough listen, but different than the other stuff of his I’ve enjoyed more. I know he had different phases of his career and his musicianship evolved.

I didn’t hear anything special in this that would give it above a three, but I didn’t not like it.

Pretty good! I liked it more than I thought I would.

Another good one, another one I have on vinyl. I’ve already stated my love for Muddy in my last album review for him.

The B-52s are so much more than Love Shack, and I’ve like them for awhile. I have this album on vinyl.

This isn’t all 4 and 5 star songs, it’s got some 3s on here.

And a couple fives: Planet Claire and, my favorite of their songs, of course, the legendary Rock Lobster. What a top notch song. If I went back, I might give some more songs 5?

Even a three star song like Dance This Mess Around ends so weird and wonderful, I can’t really NOT like it.

This is a solid four stars. Very weird, very rocking, very fun.

Pretty Leonard Cohen-y.

I love Joni and this is my favorite of her albums. I know, not really that hot of a take. I remember back, just when I got out of college, I decided to check out this album, because I was unfamiliar with Joni’s music and always heard it was good. I was so blown away, I took it to my roommates and played it for them. One walked away after a couple songs, and the other called it “boring” and I shut it off. I couldn’t believe it. Anyway, I think this might be my third five star rating in a row, and this was the first one there was no debate in my head about it.

A classic for a reason. Folsom Prison Blues is five star, and there’s some other top notch songs on here. I’m not sure this quite gets to five star for me.