Reviews by mitch058

Hm. I guess it's worthwhile to have this album in this collection because of it's early-/proto-/semi-metal heritage, but aside from highlighting how much the blues infuses so much harder-edged rock music (especially in the 60s and 70s), there's not a lot going on here that seems all that notable or particularly distinctive, at least from a 2025 perspective. They have a pretty good cover of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime blues", and "Parchment farm" was also entertaining, but otherwise it's pretty forgettable. I'd say that I was churning out about the same quality music when I was in high school, but I know that's nowhere near true; it just kind of feels that way.

I'm not really sure what "Krautrock" is, nor whether Can or this album is really Krautrock or not, but I *can* say that this album is quite a sonic experience. I'm not sure I can say that I entirely enjoyed the full experience, but I definitely appreciate the chance to listen to something I doubt I would have ever picked up otherwise. It's probably a bit pointless to identify favorite tracks, mainly because of how long they all are and how meandering they are, but I generally preferred the songs on the first and last sides (1 and 4) to the meanderings of "Halleluhwah" and "Aumgn", although there's something to be said for a jam lasting an entire side of a vinyl disc, and "Halleluhwah" sustains itself remarkably well for a surprising amount of its length. Of the shorter songs, "Mushroom" and "Oh yeah" were the most accessible of the lot, and each has some catchy sections too.

Given the remarkably simple (almost austere) recording conditions of having two two-track recorders and three microphones and the entry hall to an old castle, I'm really impressed with how good the recording is. And I am in awe that they had 16-hour sessions for days on end doing this, all without being able to move around while recording for fear of messing up the mix/balance. I also love it that The Flaming Lips' "Take meta Mars" is supposed to be a cover of "Mushroom", but only based on hearing the Can song once and long ago; pretty fun to find out too that The Fall's "I Am Damo Suzuki" is based on this album's "Oh yeah", and Primal Scream's "Kowalski" sampled from "Halleluhwah" (both of which I've listened to not all that long ago from this collection).

Given how many Smiths albums I've had to endure, I'm a bit shocked that this is the first Cure album so far in the collection (with two more to come). I've never been a big Cure fan--I can still vividly recall many heated arguments with a co-worker at the bike shop I worked at, debating the glory (him) and whiny-ness (me) every time various songs from this album (and others) came on the radio. But I'm happy to say that so much Smiths exposure in this project has made me much more appreciative of the relative merits of The Cure now. I still wouldn't choose to listen to them, I'll admit, but I feel like I can better hear the appeal of their music and sentiments. This is likely their most complete album, especially how Robert Smith merged their gothic and pop sensibilities together, and while it's too long for my liking, there's definitely an element of nostalgia for the various singles and radio hits interspersed among the dirge of "Disintegration". I'm also struck by how the lone upbeat(ish) track "Lovesong" could easily have been written/played by REM, as well as how tight "Lullaby" is, especially compared to the rest fo the album. They are definitely not to my taste, but if we only get one Cure album (and I know we don't, but still) this would be it.

What a change of pace from recent albums in this collection, both temporally and tonally. I'm not sure I've ever really listened to John Cale's music before, and didn't realize he was a co-founder of The Velvet Underground until I read the Wikpedia entry. As I listened to the album, I was struck by how *un*-Velvet-Underground it sounds, and how you'd never guess that Cale was apparently very experimental and wide-ranging both before and after this album; "Paris 1919" seems very much the opposite of any of those things, with lush but fairly tepid songs and no hint of drones or "lunatic" flourishes. In many ways the song titles are the best aspect of this album for me, although I did enjoy the harder-rock "Macbeth", the Beatles-esque title track "Paris 1919", and the mildly-quirky "Graham Greene" more than the others. And I suspect the lyrics are a *lot* more interesting with repeated playback (or so the glowing reviews would suggest).

Interesting to get a Tribe spinoff album in this collection (or perhaps better to call it a comeback for one of its members, given how much later this was released), and nice to get more Q-Tip to boot. That said, this doesn't seem as strong as his much earlier work with the mothership Tribe, but that could just as easily be because it's not as quirky or collaborative as his work with A Tribe Called Quest, and the early tracks on the album seem surprisingly undifferentiated. The strongest tracks were probably the ones with guest artists, as many of the others seemed a bit too similar to each other, even with the creative instruments and samples at times (e.g. "You"); my favorites were the really strong and distinctive "Manwomanboogie" and the first half of "Move/Renaissance rap".

When I realized this was a very recent album from Nick Cave, I was excited to see what he had in store. I'll admit that this was neither what I was expecting, nor exactly why this was added to this collection, as it's not a strong Nick Cave album, and frankly not that strong an album overall (although I'll admit I must be a tiny minority in this opinion, given the nearly perfect Metacritic score reviews). He seems to be channeling his Leonard Cohen indulgences to a high degree here, and not really in an effective or appealing way to me (and there's some uncomfortable-fitting Bjork/Vangelis-like music too). I thought the stronger songs of the first part (the "children" of the double album) were "Night raid", parts of "Sun forest", and "Leviathan", but this is more than offset by how the album feels so much longer than its already-too-long 68-minute runtime, and how the second part (the "parents") endlessly floats away; even after reading that songs like "Hollywood" are radically shorter than the original recordings, I kept wishing that most of the album had been left on the cutting room floor.

I usually enjoy Nick Cave's music quite a bit, so the disappointment here is doubly felt, and it certainly doesn't make me want to seek out the earlier albums in this trilogy ("Push the Sky Away" and "Skeleton Tree"). I feel guilty giving only two stars to this album, especially given how much of it revolves around the untimely death of his son years earlier, and how this dramatically affected the way he approached his music, but this album *really* didn't do it for me. I fear I'm just stuck on a past version of Nick Cave that no longer exists.

It's always interesting to listen to groundbreaking albums and artists long after they made waves, especially if (like me) you're listening to their music largely for the first time (it was of course impossible to have missed their incredible cover of Aerosmith's "Walk this way", as well as the ubiquitous "It's tricky", but I don't think I've heard any of their songs from this album before aside from "It's like that", and I'm not entirely sure if I heard it much at the time). I know they made a splash as one of, if not *the* first hardcore rap/hip-hop groups to hit the scene, but listening in 2025 it's striking how slowly the beats pound, and how tame the lyrics are compared to just a few years later. But it's also impressive how you can hear echoes of them in the Beastie Boys (especially the syncopation in "Wake up", but really throughout), Public Enemy, Ice-T, etc. I particularly enjoyed their singles "Hard times", the OG rap rock track "Rock box", their seminal "It's like that", as "Hollis crew", and "". I'm a little disappointed I wasn't able to watch the videos to their singles, but probably not enough to go back to watch them later. But very fun to listen to a transformative album.

Even if you're not a big fan of her music, it's hard to deny how impressively Taylor Swift pivoted with this album and became an incredible musical juggernaut. And it's equally hard not to enjoy all of the singles on this and subsequent albums; it almost feels like she's somehow created greatest hits albums with each new release. She's managed to combine her undeniable success with a seemingly genuine personality and very savvy business sense, and created a lasting 21st phenomenon that seems rivalled only by Beyonce (and probably only Madonna and Michael Jackson from the 20th century). I've never listened to this album in its entirety (although impossible to miss all the singles), so that was nice to experience. It's definitely not music for musicians or even songwriters, but it's certainly entertaining (and I'm confident that the numerous videos on this album are equally so, although I wasn't able to watch them).

I've heard of (and probably listened a bit to) The Flaming Lips, but really only in the context of their album "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots", so I'm guessing there's at least one more Flaming Lips in store in this collection. I feel as if I've always wanted to like them more than I actually do, and this album kind of reinforces this feeling, largely due to the sort of quavery/out-of-tune vocals singing about young adult style fantasy stories, and with a bit too many precocious ersatz flourishes. It *is* impressive how seamless the tracks blend into each other, though, and I thought "The spark that bled" and "What is the light" and "The gash" were strong songs (contrivances notwithstanding). I can definitely see why this is sometimes referred to as a 1990s version of "Pet Sounds", and I had about the same reaction to this album as I did to "Pet Sounds". It's interesting too to read that this album was a huge break from their previous style; I guess we'll find out how noticeable the difference is if we get any of their earlier stuff in this collection.

I vaguely recall my brother mentioning The Darkness as a fun hair-metal-esque band for the 21st century. And while he might have even given me one of their albums, I think this is the first time I've listened to them, and I can definitely see what he meant now, especially with the opening track "Black shuck" storming out of the gates and never looking back (and very cool that the song was based on a legend of a dog that haunts a church near the band's hometown). Screaming falsettos, power chords aplenty, blistering guitar licks and a veritable wall of distortion; this one has it all, down to the somewhat embarrassingly adolescent titles and lyrics.

It's not really the type of album to have too many highlights, only because they're probably 20 years too late to get the kind of airplay they'd have deserved in the 80s, but I'd say that they had a few perfectly tuned tracks in "Growing on me", "I believe in a thing called love", "Stuck in a rut", and the epic "Love on the rocks with no ice". Not the best album ever (by a long shot), but definitely fun, and I can see why they're compared to the likes of Queen,as they have the same kind of energy and over the top commitment that's not quite camp.

It's a bit of a shame that this debut album came so soon in the collection after their later album "This Nation's Saving Grace", as they're the type of band that seems best taken in small doses. Of course, I'm not sure I'd ever really warm up to their style and sound, as this album didn't really do much for me; I thought "Rebellious jukebox" and "Two steps back" were perhaps the best tracks. And I appreciated it that most songs, and the album cover, were relatively concise time wise.

I suspect this is the type of band and album that would have been much better appreciated and enjoyed back when it first came out, as it's clearly rebelling against contemporary music and the labels that produced more popular fare. It also sounds like they had great live shows, which would have been fun to see and hear.

I don't think I've ever heard of Suede, nor anything from this album, which is always a potentially interesting prospect from this collection. I'm not sure they really delivered on that potential, but I also found the album a somewhat interesting collection of mid-90s alternative rock, with more than a healthy dose of David Bowie-esque influences and homages (most obvious on "The power" and "New generation", but present throughout). The album didn't really grab me, but I thought "Daddy's speeding" and "The asphalt world" were the better tracks of the lot.

It didn't help their cause much to read all the sordid details of the guitarist/co-songwriter's split with the rest of the band mid-album over...I'm not entirely sure what, exactly, but it sounded pretty ugly and acrimonious, and didn't make a lot of sense given how ho-hum the album seems overall.

I was never a huge Primal Scream fan even when they were big, but it's nice to get this album (especially compared to the somewhat baffling inclusion of their album "Vanishing Point" in this connection), mainly because it's more or less their attempt at a greatest hits album. It's pretty hard to deny the ear worm of "Loaded" (and I'm glad to have finally found out that the sampled movie clip is from Peter Fonda's "The Wild Angels"), and "Movin' on up" and "Higher than the sun" and "Come together" are decent tracks too; kudos too for their cover of 13th Floor Elevators' "Slip inside this house". The rest is pretty undistinguished, unfortunately, but still not horrible, and definitely acid-house dance oriented.

It's hard to imagine a worse release date for an album than 9/11/2001, so on some level I feel like we should all cut Jay-Z some slack for a remarkably forgettable album, although I feel like all the legal troubles he got into, and the whole diss culture he participated in kind of offsets any sympathy for bad timing. Despite the impressive cast of luminaries who helped with the production of the album, I was really struck by how few tracks were compelling; the only ones that seemed decent were (maybe) "Takeover", "U don't know", and the Eminem-backed "Renegade". It's hard to understand how this is regarded as one of the great hip-hop albums of all time, frankly, but I guess I just don't have a suitably appreciative ear.

This album is definitely more like the Tom Waits I'm familiar with than his much earlier "Nighthawks At The Diner", and for that alone I'm glad this album is included in the collection. I also feel like this is a much stronger album overall than "Nighthawks", especially for those (like me) who enjoy his style; I really enjoyed the whole album, but felt the opening track "Earth died screaming", "Such a scream", "In the colosseum", and "Black rain" were all particularly good (the only laggards were "A little rain" and "Whistle down the wind"). I'm disappointed that I wasn't able to watch the videos for "Goin' out west" and "I don't wanna grow up", especially since they were directed by Jim Jarmusch and Jesse Dylan, but I guess that'll be something to look forward to.

I know he's largely an acquired taste, but I'm thankful that I've somehow become seasoned to his distinctive and unusual style (probably some combination of seeing him on the screen ("Children of God", an episode of "Fishing with John"), and his great version of "The devil down below" that fronted season one of "The Wire"). And it's very cool that he got a variety of musicians to accompany on various tracks (Les Claypool (Primus) on "Earth died screaming", Keith Richards on "That feel", David Hidalgo (Los Lobos) on "Whistle down the wind", etc).

I'm not sure I've ever heard of or listened to The Fall before, so I'm surprised to see that we have at least two of their albums in this collection (including this one). It'll be interesting to see if their earlier album sounds like this one, but I'm assuming it must have some other hook because this is *not* a particularly entertaining or distinctive set of songs, kind of a garage band version of something like The Clash mixed with maybe Deep Purple and a bit of Iggy Pop sprinkled in? That doesn't really encapsulate them, I know, but I didn't really find myself drawn to their avant-garde-esque quirkiness, I'll admit.

It's a bit hard to choose from along the largely undistinguished morass in this album, but I thought "Barmy" and "L.A." stood out a bit, and the occasional tracks (like "Vixen") with Brix Smith's vocals were a nice change of pace; I wanted to enjoy "Paint work", especially given all the accolades and chatter about how it developed/accreted, but other than a certain "Uncle Meat" Zappa-like aspect, it didn't really do much for me. I *did* enjoy reading, though, that James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem fame became obsessed with this album, and it even led him to embrace and appreciate abstract art as a result. I don't think I have the patience to listen to this album enough to have similar revelations, but I can see/hear a bit what he must have meant.

I feel badly for Radiohead that this collection has *so* many of their albums, as my initial reaction now is a mixture of dread and irritation, wondering just how long I'll have to sit through yet another Radiohead release. Thankfully, this seems like one of their stronger albums, and about the right length for what they're trying to convey (not that I'm ever quite sure what that message might be, I'll admit). It's hard to single out individual tracks as being particularly better or worse than the effect of the whole, but I was a bit partial to "The national anthem", the pseudo-single "Optimistic", and "Idioteque". I'm a bit disappointed that I want able to watch all the animated shorts that went along with most of the tracks, but not so much so that I'd brave listening to the album again, I'm afraid.

Although I'm just not a big Radiohead fan, I can definitely see why this got such blistering reviews at the time and then rave reviews in retrospectives, as it's such a unique sound and approach in many ways, especially given when it was released (and *so* much better than "Amnesiac"). And I'm also glad for their sake that this album didn't break them up.

I don't think I've ever heard anything by The Sisters of Mercy, and despite Wikipedia noting that there were three singles from this album, I don't think I've heard anything from "Floodland" either. An interesting mix of an almost industrial take on New Wave music at times, although without the grittiness of something like Ministry (or of Laibach's 1987 "Opus Dei" for that matter) and more of the more mundane gloominess of the Smiths or the Cure. The album is pretty solid overall, albeit a bit turgid on the slower songs (like "Flood 1" or "1959"); my favorites were probably "Dominion/Mother Russia" and "Flood II", and also the extended version of "Never Land (full length)".

It's definitely dated (especially the ubiquitous drum machine, so cheesily credited as "Doktor Avalanche"), but a lot more interesting than something like, say, Pet Shop Boys or even The Cure, and I admire it that this was largely a one man production, a la Trent Reznor, although I do wish it had the bite of Nine Inch Nails. (I was also a bit bummed that I wasn't able to watch the videos for the singles, as I was mildly curious to see if they were interesting or pretentious, or both.) Sadly, though, Andrew Eldritch sounds like a bitter jerk, at least to former band members, especially with the semi decent "This Corrosion" intended to be a satirical mocking of a former "Sisters" musician's meaningless lyrics. I think the Rolling Stone reviewer Mark Coleman summed it up best: "Meat Loaf joining the Cure for a remake of Lou [Reed]'s Berlin"....

I didn't expect a band with a name like Flamin' Groovies to sound like a sort of Southern/country/rockabilly rock band, so that was kind of interesting. But once I adjusted to this perspective, I was a bit disappointed that they didn't sound all that full/resonant, which might just reflect that they recorded this album in the early 70s, or maybe that they just don't have a very big sound. Either way, I thought "Yesterday's numbers" and "Whiskey woman" were probably the highlights of the album, although I also enjoyed the overall variety too (except the semi-Elvis take on "Evil-hearted Ada"). It's always nice hearing an unknown (to me) band, and I also appreciated the concise tracks and the half hour playtime (although some of the extras are pretty fun too, including the extended jam version of "Louie Louie"). And kudos to Mick Jagger for being generous in saying they did the modern blues rock sound better than the Rolling Stones.

I don't think I've ever heard anything by Femi Kuti before, and this is definitely a different style from a number of other African-based albums we've gotten in the collection--including of course the massive presence of his father--so that's always a good thing. This album definitely seems to embrace elements of his father's Afrobeat tradition, but either because of Femi Kuti's decision to be more accessible, or perhaps because of the kind of hollow sound many 90s-era albums have (not much bass, every instrument very discrete in a kind of artificial way), I wasn't really drawn into the songs on the albums all that much; this made the 70+ minute runtime seem even longer, sadly. I thought "Frustrations" and "Nawa" and there energetic "Live for today" seemed the best of the bunch, as the almost reggae-sounding singing on many of the tracks kind of blended the rest together, despite some pretty incisive lyrics at times.