Reviews by mikltabey

Pretty good. I don’t think this is something I’ll revisit often, but it’s the type of thing I’d buy the vinyl of and put on during a game night.

Yeah! I dug it! Never heard of these folks before, but I might have to check out more of their stuff.

The Isley Brothers are good. This album is good. The album cover is good. I’ve been on a bit of a funk/soul kick lately and this album fits right in. The stand out for me was Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight, but I liked them all.

I’d never listened to this one before, but I do like Bowie and frequently revisit Ziggy Stardust and Hunky Dory. I’m glad this list is branching out my Bowie listening, because I unsurprisingly enjoyed this very much. This album grew on me as I listened and went from a 4 to a 5 by the end.

Walk This Way can’t fix this mess. This is just bad. Steven Tyler is not good. Joe Perry is decent. These songs are not good. I wanted to give this a 2, but the more I listened, the more I hated it.

This album is so much rock ‘n’ roll fun.

This had a few 4 star songs for me, but not enough of them. Overall, this was a pleasant listen and I’m glad I heard it, but I don’t think I’ll be revisiting.

This list loves electronica and samba.

I did not like her voice and the album sounded much the same to me. Of the samba albums we’ve listened to, this is my least favorite.

Historically, Paul Simon is my favorite band/musician. I know he’s had his controversies, including accusations of plagiarism, not excluding this album. There’s also a story about how he was going to produce the first album of a SNL band member as a favor to Lorne Michaels, that artist gave Paul a tape of African music and said “I’d like to do something with this.” and Paul went “Nope. This is mine now.” All that being said: this album exists.

I remember being in high school and buying Paul’s albums on CD based on the list of albums on the jacket of his CDs. I remember getting to Graceland, putting the CD in, hitting play, the opening accordion riff starting, and my head turning as I was like “WTF? Did my speaker break? Oh, wait…this is how it’s supposed to sound??” And then my mother immediately reminding me I needed to mow the lawn. I remember mowing the lawn thinking “I gotta hear the rest of this album!”

Anyway, I’m retrospect, if I were to tier Paul’s albums, I don’t think I’d put this one in the top tier. He’s got 4 or 5 better albums. It makes sense that this is on this list, though. I get it. It’s still a 4 and there’s some very good songs on here (Diamonds on the Souls of Her Shoes, Graceland) …and then there’s You Can Call Me Al.

One of my favorites. My favorite Cat song is Peace Train, but this has a few of his hits on it. And they’re very good. So are the other songs.

This guy is from Massive Attack and I really liked the Massive Attack album we listened to. And I really liked this! This came out when I was 15 and I would’ve loved to have gotten into it when I was that age. But I enjoyed this listen.

Are the editors of this list British?

Maybe this just caught me in the right mood, but I liked this better than the last Marvin Gaye. I knew about this album’s history and legend. It’s one of those albums that’s in the “This person made this album bad on purpose to screw some over” pantheon.

In this case it’s his ex-wife, who would get the revenue from this album and also goes “…but Marvin Gaye couldn’t make a bad album even if he tried.” Turns out, there’s not a lot of truth to this. Marvin did try on this album and was disappointed at the response to it. I wonder if the legend has helped it gain more acclaim over time?

I don’t know. I liked it.

I love me some Neil Young. This is sooo good.

I’ve always liked REM, but they’ve never been one of my favorites. I’ll throw on an album of theirs every once in a blue moon. This is always an enjoyable listen.

This was fine.

I was a bit worried about this one, then read the review in this site and thought maybe I’m right to be. You know, the first few tracks were cool with the electric rhythm guitars and other arrangements. Then it just sort of coasted after that. Not a bad listen, but it didn’t blow me away.

Another album I’ve listened to many times, this was a no-brainer 5 stars.

I’ve always heard this album described as a masterpiece, and I’m not sure I can disagree. I knew a bunch of songs already, of course, but the ones I didn’t know are also really also blew me away.

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down is problematic, but besides that The Band was fantastic and this album is a great example why. So good. I’ve listened to this album many, many times. I was planning on giving it a 4, but changed my mind after re-listening.

I’ve always liked Pink Floyd, but they’ve never been one of my favorites. And I’ve always been very impressed by David Gilmour. Boy is it fun to get blazed and watch lasers shoot at you while their music plays. Dark Side or The Wall might get 4s out of me, but this one has always been a little lackluster.

Coincidentally, on Sunday evening an 85 year old family friend brought a box of old records of his to family dinner for me to look at. It was mostly Dean Martin, Barbara Streisand, and Andy Williams. But a first pressing of this album was in there and made me go “Whoa!” as I pulled it out. As soon as I can figure out a fair price to give him for it (It’s looking like upwards of $80), I will be adding it to my collection.