Reviews by mitch058

Well, it's always nice to see another Aussie band in this collection, and The Saints seemed to have held up decently well against a lot of other 70s punk albums from this project. I suspect part of their decent showing is that they seem to be more musically- and song-oriented than a lot of their contemporaries. But punk's never been my cup of tea, so it's hard for me to really judge the more subtle merits of the band and album. But kudos to them to include horns on their lone hit "Know your product".

Wow. This must be great for all the Beach Boys/Brian Wilson fans out there (and I know they're legion), but for me this was just a painful (or perhaps just awkward) experience, and it took me a while to realize that this was a 21st-century album, which made the awkwardness even more pronounced. It actually makes me feel like I was too harsh with Elvis' late-in-life album in the collection ("From Elvis in Memphis"), as that album at least was passably entertaining, and I'm not sure I can say the same about this bizarre nostalgic quasi-re-creation of an abandoned Beach Boys album. (To be slightly fair to Brian Wilson, I didn't have the same reaction to Sufjan Stevens' "Illinois", mainly because Stevens didn't have the sort of legacy and baggage that Wilson does.)

Other than being a maudlin bookend for the tragic artist Brian Wilson, I'm not really sure why this is here (although the massive Metacritic score of 97 suggests this is my problem, not anyone else's). Given how random and juvenile and revue-like this is, I dare anyone to justify why we got this instead of the infinitely more interesting and no less bizarre debut album by Mr. Bungle (1991). I dare you.

Hm. Although there's nothing really wrong with this album, it just didn't work for me. Maybe it's just that I'm not a "UK Garage" fan (although I'm not really sure I understand what that term even means), or it's just the somewhat antiseptic sound (the same problem I have with lots of drum-n-bass music, although I do give credit to MJ Cole for playing a number of actual/live instruments on some tracks), but whatever the reason this felt like an instantly forgettable album with no real personality, although I do enjoy Elisabeth Troy's vocals. The only tracks that stood out for me were "Bandelero desperado", "Rough out here", and "Slum king", and even those weren't all that spectacular. Sorry Matt Coleman!

I'm not entirely sure what to make of this album. It's a fun set of blues tracks (and I particularly enjoyed their version of Ray Charles' "What I'd say"), and Eric Clapton's presence and guitar work is more interesting than much of the other albums in this collection where he appears (in part because Mayall does most of the vocals). Yet given the accolades as one of the most influential blues albums ever, it also feels like yet another example of how a lot of mainstream/commercial rock music from Elvis to the present owes much if not all of its success and wealth to black (and mainly American) musicians who were neither financially compensated nor adequately recognized for their immense contribution to white culture and music (American and British). It doesn't mean, of course, that Mayall and Clapton and others aren't allowed to provide their own versions of these songs and tunes, but it feels a bit like injustice, especially when you have a douchebag like Eric Clapton enjoying the fruits of other people's genius (although admittedly in the 60s only the record labels enjoyed *anyone's* fruits).

Interesting that this is album #686 for me yet is only the first (for me, not chronologically) of three Kraftwerk albums in this collection. Regardless, it's nice to get the OG electronica band, and this seems like a great sample of their style. Funny too how similar their music was to industrial, just skewed towards the electronic noise end rather than found-object noise. And interesting that this is considered their most club/dance-friendly album; I suspect the other two albums may be even more industrial/art-noise adjacent. Somewhat unexpectedly, I enjoyed the entire album much more than I expected to, and found it strangely soothing or maybe just hypnotic); my favorites are "The robots", "Metropolis" and the title track, but there really isn't a bad track on this compact album. And kudos to them for laying the groundwork for literally generations of bands in the decades since.

After four previous Byrds albums, it's hard to muster much enthusiasm for yet another one, and there's not much on "Fifth Dimension" that contradicts my lack of enthusiasm, sadly. Given how interchangeable most of the albums have been so far--aside from the semi-successful effort Gram Parsons made to inject some country into "Sweetheart of the Rodeo"--I really don't understand why this particular album was included, especially since it seems both uninspired and uneven, and doesn't even have any of their radio- or fan-favorites (except the noodly "Eight miles high" and maybe "Mr. Spaceman"?); they apparently suffered more from Gene Clark's songwriting absence than they probably expected. I guess it has some claim to birthing psychedelic rock, but that seems fairly dubious and doesn't really justify so many Byrds albums. Sorry guys.

Ooohhh, Jack White must be pissed right now. But I on the other hand am happy that Black Keys got included in this collection. I've always felt like they channeled a great sound and took inspiration from Jack White but took the band in a (somewhat) different direction. I'm also happy to hear this album, as I only own the one that came after this ("El Camino"), and "Brothers" clearly has a lot of their biggest hits. I particularly enjoyed the trifecta of "Next girl", "Tighten up" and "Howlin' for you" (with the first two having pretty funny videos to go along with the songs; not sure that the "Howlin'" faux-trailer-video is quite as funny as it thinks it is), as well as "Black mud" (plus "Part II" in the deluxe anniversary edition) and "Sinister kid". It's probably about 15-20 minutes too long, but what a solid album nonetheless.

I don't think I knew before reading about this album that Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney were/are the entirety of The Black Keys, I guess mainly because they have such a full sound on their albums. Pretty impressive, I must say. It's also fascinating to read in the Wikpedia entry for the album what it was like to record in the long-defunct (but apparently legendary) Muscle Shoals Studio in the middle of rural Alabama, and how much the layout and acoustics of the old building influenced the sound of the album (I think the video for the intriguing "Too afraid to love you" shows a lot of that, including the harpsichord that they drunkenly requested from their manager one night). Even though they ended up doing more production and recording in other venues than just Muscle Shoals Studio, I'm glad for Auerbach that he got the chance to record in one of his bucket list studios, and that they ended up with a fantastic album as a result. I'm also glad that they were willing to keep exploring new approaches and didn't keep dipping in that particular bucket with subsequent albums.

This is now the fourth--and hopefully final?--Rod-Stewart-related album in this collection (including Jeff Beck's "Truth" and Faces' "A Nod Is As Good As a Wink"), which seems like three too many albums filled with his distinctive yet strangely underwhelming vocals. And among those four, this is probably the cellar-dweller of the lot, mainly because of how many forgettable-to-painful cover tunes are included on the album (although the nicely done cover of Dylan's "Only a hobo" does somewhat offset clangers like the cover of Elton John's "Country comfort"). Fine, I suppose, but nothing to write home about or, for that matter, to die over. And his voice is similar enough to Joe Cocker's that I'm once again very frustrated that we get this cornucopia of interchangeable Stewart numbers, and yet not even a little help from our "1001 Albums" friends to get Cocker into our eardrums.

My first thought with this album was that they were trying too much to be a lighter version of The Cure to be effective, and this was only confirmed in reading that they actually toured with The Cure before creating this album (which seems like an odd pairing, since I'd have thought most Cure fans would be turned off by a warm-up act that seemed very wannabe, down to using an ex-Cure bassist (at least on the album). But to give The Associates credit, they seemed to be interested in using more instruments and tones on this album than anything The Cure had to offer. It's a bit of a painful listen--too tinny and poorly-balanced--but not all that surprising given the 80s provenance, and I enjoyed (at times) their foray into more experimental styles, especially contrasted with their more radio-friendly hits "Party fears two" and "Club country". It would have been nice, though, if the album had had only one track listing that was consistent across the countries it was released in. It seems that part of the reason for the huge discrepancy between UK/Canada album releases and US/Europe releases was because the latter release happened after the presumably-slightly-more-sane half of The Associates (Rankine) left the band after Mackenzie basically sabotaged the band's future.

I'm pretty sure I've never heard (or heard of) David Holmes' music before listening to this album, and I largely enjoyed the experience, although the general lack of vocals made it hard for me to stay focused on the tracks. I was occasionally reminded of Barry Adamson's "Moss Side Story" (perhaps just because they both sound like soundtracks to some not-yet-made movie), and I love it that the vocal recordings were all made in the mid-80s in NYC with people on (really, *from*) the streets when David Holmes visited New York as a teenager, lugging around a DAT recorder. I know the Wikipedia entry claims that he has a wide range of music styles in his dance beats, but I would have enjoyed more variety among the tracks (e.g. more tracks like "Gritty Shaker", "Radio Yates" and the decently reimagined Bond theme in "Radio 7").

Given that he worked with artists from Sabres of Paradise, I'm glad he managed to elevate this album a fair bit higher than their "Haunted Dancehall" album. I'm also glad his success on his solo work helped him land the score to the various versions of "Ocean's Eleven" (and Twelve and Thirteen).

Although The Mothers of Invention seem slightly more mainstream than Frank Zappa's solo work, my long-standing inability to enjoy and appreciate Zappa also seems to extend to the Mothers (at least this early iteration of Zappa's Mothers). I *do* appreciate the fact that this album generally has recognizable song structures and sounds, and even some pretty standard rhythm and blues numbers, but the somewhat pervasive late 60s psychedelic rock sound, coupled with Zappa's distinctive arrangements in many of the tracks (especially on the second disc of the too-long double-album), don't really speak to me, and often it felt like a slightly more musical version of a Jonathan Richman album. The highlights for me were probably the paranoid "Who are the brain police?", the Watts-riots-inspired "Trouble every day" and the sinister "Help, I'm a rock", with a nod to the surprisingly retro/campy stylings of "Go cry on somebody else's shoulders", plus of course the kid-favorite "Wowie Zowie" :)

I'm a bit disappointed that there's another Mothers of Invention album ahead in the collection, but not exactly surprised.

This is definitely better than what I expected, thankfully. I'm pretty sure I hadn't heard any of the other songs on this album besides the first two radio hits (the title track and "Jet"), and while I began to worry when the saccharine "Bluebird" followed, "Mrs. Vandebilt" helped right the ship and the rest of the album wasn't nearly as derivative or painful as I feared (although I'm note really sure what to make of "Picasso's last words (drink to me)".

Reading about the creation of the album, I was also surprised that it ever got produced and released. Between McCartney managing to piss off and effectively jettison more than half the band just before traveling to record the album; to the absolutely baffling decision to go to Lagos, Nigeria to record the album (because it sounded "exotic" to McCartney), only to discover that the studio was basically in shambles; and then he and Linda McCartney getting robbed at knifepoint and other calamities, all makes for a bizarre story in poor judgment. (And of course then Fela Kuti barged into the studio accusing McCartney of appropriating African music; when McCartney played tracks from the album to ease Kuti's suspicions (presumably not including "Mamunia"), I wonder if Kuti was then just annoyed by McCartney's musical tourism....) But everyone survived, more or less, and the album seemed to help rehabilitate McCartney's credentials.

Anther classic album by the Aussies in this collection, and a fitting swan song for Bon Scott and his distinct vocals. I never really idolized AC/DC the way I did bands like Van Halen or even Iron Maiden, but I always respected their commitment and consistency, and this album is probably their finest moment. Curiously, there aren't too many outstanding tracks on this album for me, aside from the indelible title track and "Shot down in flames" and "Night Crawler", but taken as a whole it's a whole lot of heavy-duty rock filling your eardrums. Sadly, the videos to many of the tracks are incredibly boring faxu-live performances, and so clearly lip-synched/air-guitared that they kind of tarnish the otherwise fine songs. But very interesting to read how they chose/recruited "Mutt" Lange to produce the album and how transformative he was for helping them be better musicians.

It probably says a lot about me that although I've heard of Keith Jarrett (and even own a Jarrett/Peacock/DeJohnette album), I've never heard of this, the world's best-selling piano album. Nor did I really understand until I read the entries on this album that the entire hour-plus session is a master class in pure improvisation from start to finish. I have no idea where he got his inspiration, but it was a lot of fun to listen to the various parts of this album, and hearing him audibly enjoy what he was playing.

It's also amazing to read (mainly in the Wikipedia entry) about how ill-fated this session was. The most striking aspect is of course that the Opera House staff and the 18-year-old promoter completely botched the piano selection, providing an old and out-of-tune practice baby grand piano that was apparently so weak and bad that Jarrett had to change his whole approach and played mainly on the middle keys to avoid the weakest parts of the piano. And he had little sleep, little food and a bad back on top of all of that. It makes you wonder what might have been if things had gone to plan....

Although I'm still not much of a Madonna fan, I have to say that this album is *not* what I expected from her, and in a good way. It seems that a lot of the inspiration for the unexpected sound and style is courtesy of Mirwais Ahmadzaï's production skills and talents, as well as Madonna's obvious willingness to stretch herself into more modern pop territory. The highlights for me were all Madonna/Mirwais produced and written tracks, especially the title track (with a fun accompanying video), "Impressive instant" (probably the closest she'll ever get to true electonica, and largely Mirwais' creation), "Don't tell me" (with a tough balancing act in its entertaining-but-too-country-camp video), and the curious Enigma-like "Paradise (not for me)". I'm not sure exactly why she went with the cowboy look on the album cover, but it's funny to see this 2000 album's country kitsch contrasted with Beyonce's much more recent foray into less-kitschy (but no less pop-oriented) country music. I'm torn between three and four stars for this album (especially after having made the mistake of listening and watching her bonus single cover of "American Pie"), but I feel like my ingrained skepticism of Madonna's talent needs to acknowledge how different and fresh-sounding this album is, *especially* for Madonna.

I'm a bit embarrassed to say that the only songs I've ever heard (before this album) by The Replacements were "I will dare" (from this album) and "Skyway" (from the later "Pleased to Meet Me"), both of which I heard as part of my intern work at the Minnesota Historical Society for an exhibit called "Sounds Good to Me: Music in Minnesota". Those two songs were pretty different from each other, so I wasn't sure what to expect. And apparently true to form for them, I didn't get much that I expected. I liked it that the songs were all over the map, ranging from their punk roots (like "Favorite thing") to almost-ballads (like "Androgynous"); I particularly enjoyed the crossover sound of "We're coming out", and the Uncle-Tupelo-esqueness of "Unsatisfied". (I really wanted to enjoy their off-kilter cover of Kiss' "Black diamond", but it seemed strangely faithful to a pretty boring Kiss tune.) I enjoyed it more than I expected, I'll admit, and since we don't have half-star ratings, that nudges it up into 4-star territory for me.

It's a curious album choice for this collection in some ways, given that it doesn't have any well-known songs by them, but I don't know their discography enough to say if some other album would be better or more representative (it seems like a lot of people really liked "Tim", though). And very cool that future owners of Bob and Tommy Stinson's parents' house in Minneapolist commissioned a stained glass window of the album cover, and put it into one of the top-story windows of the house where the album cover photo was shot (for all the musical tourists).

I don't think I've ever heard anything by Death in Vegas before, and certainly not from this album; I'm glad to have gotten the chance to hear them finally. An impressive collection of atmospheric and beat-driven tracks (occasionally reminding me of Crystal Method and Richard Fearless' clubmates Chemical Brothers), and I was especially impressed the various guest appearances by unlikely artists. My favorites were probably the opening "Dirge", the Primal-Scream-Bobby-Gillespie "Soul auctioneer", and the Iggy-Pop-narrated "Aisha", but it's just hard to find a weak track among the lot (maybe "Lever street"?). They're certainly leaning in to the dark and melancholy, but they do it well, and sadly it seems very fitting music here in 2025. More importantly, it makes me want to seek out more albums by them.

I'm not sure I've heard much (or possibly anything) by Merle Haggard, so it's nice to get a full album of a name I know I should have listened to before now. And weird album cover aside, it's a good collection of country tracks; the best for me were the title track, "Life in prison" and "Drink up and be somebody". It's a bit strange having his clear crooning voice singing somewhat dark and sad tunes over often-upbeat-sounding arrangements, but perhaps that's part of his appeal. And very cool to read that Merle Haggard was inspired to pursue a country career when he heard Johnny Cash sing at San Quentin in 1958 (or possibly 1960) while he was a prisoner there. (That and having some of his prison mates get executed leading the type of life he was pursuing.)

There are far too many Elvis Costello albums in this collection, which makes it hard to rate any of them fairly, but thankfully this is a solid album overall, and seems worthy of being included (if for no other reason than his painting on the cover painted by (titled?) "Napoleon Dynamite", predating the movie by a couple of decades...). The highlights are mainly on the first half/side, "Tokyo storm warning", "I want you" and "Battered old bird". I also appreciated the recording style of cramming the Attractions (who weren't all that happy with Costello, sadly making this their swan song) into a single room and recording in single takes; quite a contrast to the prevailing 80s production sound, and strangely refreshing.

Ironically, it sounds as if this album is more or less a return to his earlier form after a different sound on his previous album ("King of America"). Given the obsessive focus on Costello's earlier career, I wonder if that album--or really anything after "Blood & Chocolate"--might have been better for this collection, given how much this album sounds like so many others by Elvis Costello in this collection? Either way, I'm glad to see that I have only one more of his albums to go at this point ("My Aim is True").

What a great album to have in this collection. It's exactly the sort of thing that I would never have even considered, and it's not really to my taste (too music-hall/show-tune for me), but it's also a pretty distinctive album and musical style, and I feel better for having heard it, and having read about David Ackles, before I die. I didn't really have any favorites among the tracks, although the title track does a good job setting the tone for the remainder of the album, and both "Another Friday night" and "Midnight carousel" are an interesting mix of dark lyrics with almost upbeat-sounding tunes.

Reading about his life and career is also pretty interesting. I can totally picture him with his sister when they were kids finding really obscure folk songs to perform as a folk duo (the pair having started out doing vaudeville acts). And given his challenges getting his songs to get any traction, I'm glad he met Bernie Taupin (who produced this album) when he opened for Elton John in 1970 in LA. A shame that the most everyone seems to say about Ackles is that he's (still) waiting to be rediscovered, a great sound that no one's heard.