Reviews by mitch058

I'm pretty sure I've never heard anything from The Avalanches or this album before except the fantastic "Frontier psychiatrist", which is kind of a nice change of pace after several albums in a row with very familiar artists and/or songs. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I guess it wasn't exactly this sort of happier-than-average electronic/trip-hop/disco atmosphere. At times they even reminded me of a more electronic-oriented sample-heavy Jamiroquai (plus bits of Fatboy Slim, Portishead, and even Daft Punk), which made for an enjoyable experience, even if the album was a bit long in the tooth at times. And they got off to a great start with the title track, largely on the strength of the quirky miners-discovering-a-dance-studio video. "Radio" is another strong track, as was "Electricity" and "ETOH" (in addition to the excellent "Frontier psychiatrist" with its almost hypnotically engaging video). It was also impressive to read how much time and effort (and eventually reworking of the album) was involved in tracking down and (largely) getting clearance for their thousands of samples--a shame that the eventual international edition version wasn't as complete as their original release, but kudos to them for getting an apparently very elusive release from Madonna for the "Holiday" bassline in "Stay another season". Also interesting to discover that this was a product of Australian DJs, not that there's anything obviously Australian-sounding about it. This would have been an easy four stars if it had been about half or two-thirds as long.

Among all the Pet Shop Boys/Simply Red/Soft Cell/The The/etc new-wave synth-pop, I knew we'd eventually have to get Duran Duran, and here we are (but thankfully only one album from them). I'm positive I've never heard this album in its entirety, and yet every song is exactly what I thought it would sound like. I'm not sure exactly why they were so much bigger than so many other identical-sounding bands in the 80s, but I'm pretty sure it's not on their songwriting or music-making chops, and most likely on their ability to ride the MTV wave to stardom through inane videos. But interesting to learn that the album was remixed to be more radio-oriented before it got any traction in the US.

Given all the focus in this collection on 60s/70s/80s music (and 90s/2000s to a lesser extent), it's weird to see anything from the 2010s or 2020s, and a bit surprising too that we get two Taylor Swift albums at all. Unlike "1989", this album seems less radio-oriented and a bit more singer-songwriter-focused, with kind of mixed results. I imagine this was very happily received among the Swifties, but for the rest of us it doesn't have a lot of highlights or memorable tracks (at least for me), beyond maybe the single "no body, no crime". But it's nice to see that current popular artists are still making albums, even if this one dragged on a bit too long (not to mention the insane level of tedious detail in the Wikipedia entry).

Number two of three CCR albums in this collection. Much like "Cosmo's Factory", this one has a few radio classics on it, and much like that album, it sounds exactly like you expect CCR to sound. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but the lack of variety makes it kind of hard to justify so many CCR albums in the collection, especially given how close-packed they are year-wise. I always hope they'll do something wild and crazy on one of these albums and crank out some sort of heavy rock song or a samba/waltz or something, but I guess that wasn't Fogerty's thing, especially given how much he seemed to stress how "disciplined" they were. (I *do* appreciate, though, how they resisted the infinite-jam sessions of some of their contemporaries.)

I love it that the album title was taken from a soda-fountain syrup flavor Fogerty enjoyed as a kid. I'm probably wrong, but I could swear that I had a few cans of "Green River" soda/pop as a kid in Seattle. And that's probably the only connection I might have with the CCR boys.

This is a tough album for me to rate fairly, as it's not as strong overall as I'd hoped it would be, but how can you deny the greatness of "Respect"? (And until this project/collection I had no idea this was a cover of Otis Redding's song; she certainly owned it from then onwards.) It's really remarkable too that this is her 10th studio album and first with Atlantic Records--it's nearly criminal that Columbia Records buried her for 9 albums with middling jazz-singer fare.

I'm *really* glad this collection includes another of her albums, "Lady Soul", which is even better than this weirdly debut-esque album. I'm just sorry that I got "Lady Soul" before this album, as I could have appreciated the former even more after hearing this one.

Another mystery band and album, one of the things I enjoy about this project, even with the duds (and certainly much more interesting than the 7th Leonard Cohen/Beatles/David Bowie/etc album). I'm not sure I'd exactly call this a dud, but it's also not all that compelling, except perhaps that I would have guessed it was from the 90s and not 2003/2004. There's a few good titles to their tracks (especially the opening track), but I would be hard-pressed to distinguish most of the tracks from each other, and there's unfortunately a bit too much Marilyn-Manson-esque sound for my tastes (mainly the guitar and the lead singer, although at times (especially in "Getting bright at night") I was more reminded of Jane's Addiction). "Spike island" was probably the most accessible song of the lot, and I'm not entirely sure what it was about, like most of the album.

Regardless, shame on their label (V2 Records) for letting them hang out to dry, neither promoting the album at all and even forcing the band to pay for the music videos. And kudos to the "1001 Albums" reviewer, who apparently spent the time to interpret the largely-unintelligible lyrics and declare that "Kiss the lizard", "Getting bright at night" and "Big sleep" form a 20-minute "odyssey" centered around "a caustic love song"; almost intriguing enough to listen again (but only almost).

Just as I had never heard of Rocket From the Crypt, I'd also never heard of Drive Like Jehu (whose guitarist formed Rocket From the Crypt about the same time). I can't say I particularly glommed onto this album or their style, but it's well-produced and occasionally kind of fun, especially with "Do you compute" and "Super unison". A bummer that there are a few 7-to-9-minute songs that drag on faaar too long ("Luau" and "Sinews" in particular).

It's *very* odd to read that Drive Like Jehu was considered an "emo" band (at least according to Wikipedia; the "1001 Albums" entry only references their more obvious punk influences), as this album bears almost no resemblance to the likes of The Cure or The Smiths or their ilk, which probably just shows my ignorance of emo's roots more than anything. It's hard to imagine much overlap between fans of Drive Like Jehu and fans of what emo became associated with. I'm not really a fan of either, though, and in retrospect I enjoyed Rocket From the Crypt more, having now listened to this alternative.

Much like most of The Who albums in this collection, I've never heard anything from this aside from their megahits (which I think is only "My generation" and the Beatles-esque "The kids are alright", despite that there were at least two other singles from this album). It's really interesting to hear how...generic...most of their songs are on this album; clearly they were still honing their distinctive sound and style, although Daltry's voice is always pretty distinctive, and a few tracks like "The good's gone", "My generation" and "A legal matter" have hints of more mature Who sounds (plus awesome drumming on "The ox"). I also hadn't realized how much they hued to R&B in their early years, including some pretty painful covers. I know it's their debut album, and I know it's hard to place an album in its context nearly 80 years later, but I don't really see much other reason to include this album in this collection, frankly (despite Christgau claiming that it's "the hardest rock in history").

There are definitely too many Elvis Costello albums in this collection, but I appreciate that this was included, as it seems like it's a different direction and sound from a lot of his other albums. My favorites are probably the opening track "Beyond belief", "Shabby doll", and the more-classic-Costello-sounding "Human hands", but few of the tracks really fall flat (but few rise all that high either, I suppose). It's hard to know how to rate this album, as it didn't really do anything special for me, but I can see why so many critics consider this one of if not his best work across a long career.

At long last, the last of The Fall (both chronologically and in this collection)! I kept hoping with each of the two previous albums that I'd figure out how to enjoy them more than I do, but given that this was apparently considered their most accessible album, I think they're just not my cup of tea. The best of the lot for me was probably their cover of Sister Sledge's "Lost in music" and Steve Bent's "I'm going to Spain", largely because they're fairly creative takes on someone else's music (and hilarious that Bent's song was included on a compilation of the world's worst songs, justifiably so). Their original music kind of gets lost in faux-punk-Iggy-Pop-land initially, although I *did* like a couple of song titles, especially the riff off of the Twilight Zone episode "Nervous Man in a Four-Dollar Room", and it almost seemed like the album improved as it went on (peaking perhaps with "Service") and got more techno-oriented. I do wish that Mark Smith's voice wasn't as grating to me; it feels like that's a huge part of my aversion to The Fall, although I suppose his equally abrasive lyrics are another huge part).

This makes #3 of 4 for Miles Davis albums in this collection, and while that might be a bit much for one artist, I'm really glad it was included. I've never heard anything from it, so it's all new to me, and I enjoyed it from beginning to end. I can see why everybody freaked out about how to classify it, as it doesn't really fit into any particular genre, and I'm not sure it really led the way for other artists to follow, but it holds up really well. Miles Davis seems to have been able to collect really great band members for his albums, and the interplay of Chick Corea's and Herbie Hancock's keyboards was a highlight for me of the first side of the album, as was the Davis and the guitarist on the second side. It's funny to see that this album was listed next to the Bee Gees' "Odessa" in the "1001 Albums" book--I can't think of a bigger contrast in terms of sound and sophistication.

Although this project would have been just fine without this early Iron Maiden album, it's still fun to listen to it again after many many decades. I'll admit that until the opening vocals on the not-aged-well "Prowler", I'd completely forgotten about the Paul Di'Anno era of Iron Maiden, which was much more raw than their later style; this is particularly noticeable in the classic "Running Free" as well as the somewhat painful "Charlotte the Harlot". I also enjoyed their quirky prog/punk "Phantom of the Opera" (I remember trying (and failing) to perfect the opening salvos on my guitar way back then), the quintessential IM dualing-guitar-attack of "Transylvania", and the title track, although none of the tracks really qualify as great songs. Much like the album, but there's a lot of heart in this too (all except apparently poor square-peg guitarist Dennis Stratton, who just wanted to play Queen-style ballads and smell the flowers).

I know it's not really a fair comparison, but The (Young) Rascals seem like a weird mashup of the Beatles, the Monkees, and maybe something like the Moody Blues or the Bee Gees, plus plenty of 50s R&B added in. And I'll give them credit for cramming a lot of variety in 35 minutes. I'm not sure a lot of this spaghetti really stuck, at least with me, but I enjoyed the opening "A girl like you", the unexpected "Sueno", and "You better run" (which Pat Benatar disappointingly failed to improve on with her version), although I'm not sure those really offset painful tracks like their hit "How can I be sure" or "I don't love you anymore". But this isn't really their fault--I'm just not a big fan of their style.

It's hard not to hear the Zombies--or at least this album--as a sort of British Beach Boys, although not nearly as successful or well-received at the time. I was glad that their radio classic "Time of the season" didn't sound completely out of place on the album, although funny to read that it took a CBS producer in the US to fish the album out of the trashbin and decide that Americans would respond to the antiwar theme of "Butcher's tale (Western Front 1914)", and from that eventually led to their one-hit-wonder "Time" more than a year after the band had broken up. Overall, though, I can also see why they failed to get much traction with studios or fans alike; I'm not entirely sure I understand why they're now considered so highly, I'll admit.

In addition to "Time of the season", I also largely enjoyed "Hung up on a dream" and "Changes" (despite the latter's heavy-handed seasons-as-metaphors), as well as the Beatles/Kinks-esque "Friends of mine", but it seemed like there were far more trite duds like "A rose for Emily" or "Brief candles" to counter-balance the infrequent solid tracks. A shame that the album didn't include their other hit "She's not there". I greatly appreciated the brief running-time, though, and it was heart-warming to read that the surviving band members were able to play songs from this album many decades after it came out--better late than never!

Talk about a contrast between yesterday's PJ Harvey ("Battle of England") and today's Armenian onslaught! In my eyes and ears, Serj Tankian and company win hands down, but that's just me, I suppose. I *do* wish our System of a Down selection had been their followup album "Toxicity", as it's even more of a sonic and lyrical attack (in a good way). But either way, this album has a few great System of a Down nuggets, from their classic "Sugar" (and a great video as well) to the relatively mellow "Spiders" (although I don't know what the video is all about), as well as the Mr. Bungle-esque "Peephole" and "P.L.U.C.K." Especially with Tankian's (often unintelligible) excoriating critiques of capitalism and society (and Turkey), there's a lot of affinity in my mind between them and Rage Against the Machine, and they were certainly a much more interesting alternative to most of the nu-metal bands that exploded in the late 90s and 2000s.

It's often a bit frustrating with this project to see that the only inclusion of a band is with their debut album, which more often than not isn't as strong as later albums--my guess is that the editors aren't really fans of the band/artist, but perhaps worried that they'd get criticized for not including them at all. So I guess I'm glad they even included System of a Down, even if it would have been nicer to have chosen a different album.

I think the best thing I can say about this album, unfortunately, is that it's the last one in the collection for me. I'm not sure why exactly the editor(s) of this project fixated on poor Polly Jean Harvey, but he/they really did her a disservice (much as he/they did with poor Bjork), as her music really doesn't hold up to having so many albums in this collection. And really, this album initially seemed a bit better than a few of the other ones in this collection, making me think that it was too bad it wasn't one of the only ones included (maybe drop "Dry" and "Rid of me"?). But by the third track ("The glorious land", with a painful video), I realized that I probably wouldn't have minded if they dropped this one too..."ohh Engle-land". I do like it that it's a collection of antiwar montages about England's bloody history, and the album picks up a bit with "All and everyone" and "In the dark places" and the single "Written on the forehead", but only in a relative sense. And I liked seeing many of the "short films" (music videos, sort of) that Seamus Murphy created for the album, particularly the pensioners/bingo-hall/veterans-themed film for "Battleship Hill", although having everyman-type characters reciting the lyrics at the beginning of each film got a little tedious.

Regardless, I'm honestly not sure that starting an album by singing very forced olde-timey lyrics in weirdly enunciated ways and playing on an autoharp is a good idea. (No, I *know* it's not a good idea.) But at least the album became a bit more varied and less autoharpy over the course of the tracks, and I was glad to read that she was really happy with the album, as we've had a few so-so albums where the artists themselves noted how unhappy they were with it.

Weird to get yet another early 90s album in a row, but I'll admit much nicer than the string of 80s albums from a bit ago. And of course I feel a bit of pride to have another hometown band show up, although I never really understood why Alice in Chains was as popular as they were back in the day. Layne Staley's voice is quite distinctive, though, and I'm sure that's part of it; a shame that the band and their music/lyrics weren't quite as distinctive or interesting, but it's hard to deny their popularity given that they managed five singles from the album (and one of them appropriately pulled from Cameron Crowe's film "Singles", whose popularity was equally baffling). Funny too to see this album (and band) described as both metal and grunge; they always seemed to me to be more metal- and guitar-oriented, and really more in a Guns-N-Roses orientation, but those all seem like meaningless distinctions 30 years later. The highlights for me off the album are a few of the singles: the opening track "Them bones" (despite the pretentious video), "Rooster" (also despite a disappointingly simplistic video about the Vietnam experience), "Dirt" (which along with "Sickman" are almost dead ringers for Soundgarten) and of course "Would?" (another disappointing video, sadly). (And while it wasn't a great track, I liked the "Untitled" bit that even included Slayer's Tom Araya, mainly because of how it included some riff by Cantrell that apparently annoyed the rest of the band and he promised to stop playing it if they could record it...)

Very weird to read that the album was recorded in the midst of the 1992 LA riots, and kind of disappointing that none of the tracks reflect this piece of history. Sad too that heroin addiction played such a prominent role in yet another Seattle band in the early 90s.

Wow! Yesterday was Nirvana's eternal classic "Nevermind", then today it's another early 90s album from a band that I imprinted on heavily. The collection (kind of) redeems itself, particularly since I can see that we also get "Nothing's Shocking" too. I don't think this album sustains itself throughout as well as their first album, but I also can't point to any particularly weak songs--perhaps having "Then she did..." right after the sensory-overload masterpiece "Three days"? Although I didn't know until now that those two songs were somewhat connected personal odes to dead women in Farrell's life). Regardless, having both "Stop!" and "Been caught stealing" start off each side of the album keeps the momentum rolling throughout (and I have to say that "Been caught stealing" might just be their all-time best song, all the way down to Farrell's dog).

A bummer that Perry Farrell turned out to be too toxic for, well, everyone, as the early years of Jane's Addiction had such a promising future (and Porno for Pyros was such a pale imitation, maybe because of Navarro's absence). But "Ritual" seems like a fitting send-off to a unique sound and band.

I wondered when this would pop up in this collection, so now the wait is over. Despite all the overblown melodrama and seemingly unwanted attention this album generated for the band--or maybe just Kurt Cobain--it's hard not to simply enjoy this album the same way I did when I first heard it not long after it came out. I'm also glad to have finally seen the videos for their singles, as some of them highlight Cobain's ironic humor really well ("Smells like teen spirit" has its anarchist cheerleaders, while the "Bloom" video is a hilarious parody of Nirvana playing a Top of the Pops type show; "Come as you are" and "Lithium" aren't quite as interesting, video-wise). I think my favorite tracks are still "Lithium" and "Polly", but there are so many others to choose from, too.

And kudos to whoever obsessed over what I think is the longest Wikipedia entry for an album in this collection (so far). I immediately flashed to the shrine of flowers and other things that remains outside of the former Cobain/Love residence in Seattle decades after Cobain's suicide; testament to the enduring allure of the tragic-figure-who-passed-before-his-time.

I really wanted to give this album five stars, simply for its role in putting Seattle on the music map and for the legacy of the band, but I could really only do that if the album had been half as long (or if the project's editors had decided to only include this one rather than two other Nirvana albums as well). The first side of the album is so strong--as different as it is to pre-Nevermind Nirvana--but then the second side from "Drain you" onwards creeps by in a much less elevated place, sadly (except "Something in the way"). Nothing too horrible, of course (although the hidden track "Endless, nameless" isn't worth the long wait after "Something in the way"), but a good reminder of how hard it is to produce a complete album from start to finish. Not that insta-fans worldwide were complaining, of course.

I'm a bit disappointed to realize that this collection focuses exclusively on Talking Heads' early albums, and really just the debut album (de rigor with this project) and then the three Brian-Eno-produced albums. There's nothing wrong with any of these albums, but it's a bummer that we don't get anything after 1980 from a band that definitely had some evolution over the years. And as much as it's fun to hear their iconic "Take me to the river" (which I had never realized was an incredibly good and unique cover of Al Green's original), it seems like the collection would be stronger with a post-1980 album in place of this one (say, "Speaking in Tongues" or "Little Creatures").

Aside from "Take me to the river," I also particularly enjoyed "Warning signs", "Found a job" and "I'm not in love". And I liked the photomosaic album cover, as well as the quirky album title. Overall, though, this seemed like decent-but-not-great Talking Heads fare; I enjoy listening to them, but there wasn't all that much that screamed "don't die yet!" to me.