Reviews by mitch058

Yet another Latin entry in this collection that I feel ill-equipped to judge fairly or accurately. I've never been a big fan of big band music, and I have little to no familiarity with Mambo music, so all I can really say is that this sounds reasonably well produced for its time, and I kind of felt like I was in some puertorriqueño-flavored type of Vegas show, so... mildly entertaining? I *was* impressed with the xylophone show in "Hong Kong mambo", though. (And with full apologies to the late King of Mambo for any disrespect.)

Even though I know they're very different bands, and different eras, I nearly always conflate Velvet Underground, Psychedelic Furs, and Depeche Mode into some sort of Frankenstein-like mashup of totally incompatible styles. And as I listened to this album, I realized that I've probably never actually heard much of anything by the Psychedelic Furs except the radio hits like "Pretty in pink". I was a bit surprised that some of the non-singles tracks on this album don't really sound like their more popular hits (the opening song "Dumb waiters" is a good example, although apparently this *was* a single), but in general they're not really a band that I enjoy listening to their songs, either for the first time or the umpteenth millionth time; that said, I thought "Mr Jones" and "It goes on" were stronger than most of the rest. Regardless, I give them credit for having nothing to do with the likes of Lou Reed or "Personal Jesus" (although there's a certain similarity to The Smiths, sadly).

I had a friend in college who was a huge fan of Fugazi, and while I liked the band's name I realize now that I never listened to them, and had just assumed that they were along the spectrum of Mudhoney, pre-Nevermind Nirvana and other bands like that. I'm a bit relieved to find out that latter impression was at least somewhat accurate (relieved mainly because I no longer have to worry that I might have missed out on a unique sounds all these years). But I'm glad I finally got a taste of the DC band, and I'm impressed how they clearly had more talented musicians than some of their fellow semi-hardcore/not-exactly-grunge ilk. The opening track "Turnover" is a great opener for the album, and I also enjoyed "Blueprint" and "Two beats back" (plus "Song #1" from the extras).

Overall, they're not really ground-breaking, but the combination of tight music played almost punk style makes for an interesting style and sound, and the lyrics are (when I could actually hear them) reminiscent of Rage Against the Machine's political leanings. I hadn't appreciated until now that they were *way* more Pearl Jam than PJ ever was in terms of giving the middle finger to corporate music structures (record labels, Ticketmaster, even merchandising), and I really admire that they eschewed selling *anything* when they toured, they chose their own venues, and basically prohibited slam dancing, all in the name of trying to keep their ticket prices to $5 a head, which they largely did for over 15 years. I have a *lot* of respect for that, and I kind of wonder if that was part of the reason my college friend followed them so closely.

Although I'll never turn down the chance to listen to Nick Cave's music, I kind of wonder if this double album is a good choice for this project, especially given how many Nick Cave albums there are in this collection. Regardless, it's an interesting approach to a double album, with very different sides to his music on each disc. I particularly enjoyed the "Abattoir Blues" tracks, especially "Cannibal's hymn", "Hiding all away", and the Johnny Cash tribute "Let the bells ring". The "Lyre of Orpheus" disc wasn't quite as strong to me, although I did enjoy "Breathless", "Easy money" and "O children" in particular; it *did* kind of feel, though, like Nick Cave channeled his (always present) Leonard Cohen spirit a bit too hard with some of these ballads.

It's hard to know how to rate this (double) album, as I feel like this is a fairly strong Nick Cave album overall (Orpheus' minor faults notwithstanding), and probably worthy of four stars for that, but on the other hand it feels like it's a rough trip for those who aren't familiar with (or fans of) his music. But I guess I'll vote as a long time fan of his work.

I kind of assumed from the man's name and the irreverent album title that this was some sort of crooner, so a pleasant surprise to find out just how wrong I was. It's not exactly what I'd necessarily choose to listen to, but it's a very solid and confident album, and I enjoyed the range of styles--and the impressively radio friendly length--of most of the tracks. My favorites were probably the first three tracks ("Gotta get up" through "Early in the morning") plus the singles "Coconut" (it's so nice to finally have a name to put with one of my favorite novelty songs) and the surprisingly long "Jump into the fire". I also appreciated the overall brevity of the album; short and to the point, and only slightly maudlin at times ("Without you", "The moonbeam song" and "I'll never leave you" were a bit too much for me, although I'll admit I'm not familiar with the original "Without you" by Badfinger, so it's probably not fair to criticize a cover version that pushed a half hearted ballad into saccharine territory).

Another odd (Scottish) selection from the murky backwaters of this project, further clouded by the nearly absent Wikipedia entry for this album (thankfully the "1001 Albums" entry was a little more verbose, and I appreciated learning that artists as wide ranging as Donovan and Maryanne Faithfull did covers of his songs). I was reminded of another mainly-acoustic artist, Leo Kottke, as I listened to the album (especially "Angie"). I particularly enjoyed "I have no time", "Do you hear me now" and "Courting blues"; I really wanted to enjoy "The needle of death", but it felt like the folk style got in the way of a very modern and sad story. I wanted to rate this album higher than three stars, especially because a number of the lyrics are really nicely done, but it's a high bar for me when it's just a solo artist with an instrument and his or her voice.

I think the album cover and the in-your-face name of the band kind of sets them up for a bit of disappointment, at least for me. It's a solid album and well produced, but I'm a little baffled by the Wikipedia references to punk or even post punk, as this sounds a lot like a female trio playing Clash/Police style white reggae, *without* much in the way of punk elements (a bit like the B-52s, but not as quirky, although Ari Up's human tremolo is pretty distinctive). I wish there was more variety to the songs, but I thought "Newtown" and "Typical girls" distinguished themselves pretty well, and I *really* enjoyed their fantastic cover of "I heard it through the grapevine" (technically a bonus track, I know, but still). And it's nice to think that The Slits were the predecessors to the riot grrrl phenomenon.

I'm not a huge Wilco aficionado, but I own at least one album by them (not this one) and usually enjoy both them and Uncle Tupelo when I hear them. Thankfully this holds true for this album too, although I was kind of hoping to enjoy more tracks on the too long album than I did. "Misunderstood" starts off the album really (really) strongly, but Tweedy and company struggle to sustain the mood or tone through much of the first disc, sadly; I was really glad that "Red eyed and blue" followed "Forget the flowers", as the latter kind of made me despair for the remainder of the album. It was nice that the second disc really picked up with "Outta sight" through "Kingpin".

Overall it feels like Tweedy and Wilco were still exploring directions with this album, and didn't quite find the way by the end. Fine but not great.

I'm not entirely sure why I know the name of this album so well, as I've neither owned it nor heard much from it, but I kind of recall that they got a *lot* of attention with this debut album. I think I kind of got them confused with Filter (of "Hey man, nice shot" fame), but I have no idea why, as they weren't really contemporary. Either way, the ubiquitous "Mr. Brightside" track definitely placed them for me, and I enjoyed the impressively creative Moulin-Rouge-based video. I also really enjoyed "All these things that I've done" (in part from being reminded of the scene in "Southland Tales" where Justin Timberlake lip syncs to it, but also because I like the song, and their video is quite good too). The other videos weren't quite as good, but they clearly put some effort into "Smile like you mean it", which I appreciate. And I can see why the 2005 "1001 Albums" entry notes a connection to Franz Ferdinand, as it's definitely there (but not in a copycat way); a shame that they dropped this album in later editions.

This is definitely one of those albums that deserves a half-star system, as it feels like an insult to only give it three stars, especially given that they accomplished four popular singles on a debut album. But it also seems like there's not as much variety to their sound across the album to warrant four stars, and it definitely sags towards the end (looking at you in particular, "Everything will be alright"). But we don't have half-stars, of course, so four it is!

Much like yesterday's Hot Chip selection, I own a few of LCD Soundsystem's earlier albums, so it's nice to get a band I like and music I haven't previously heard by them. And unlike Hot Chip's "In Our Heads", I enjoyed this album just as much as I've enjoyed their earlier albums. I particularly enjoyed "oh baby" (in part due to the impressive and sad video by Rian Johnson and starring Sissy Spacek and David Strathairn), "i used to", and "call the police".

A solid album, and fun to get newer material from them in this collection, but not their strongest work; perhaps they felt a bit rusty (and clearly more subdued) from their long hiatus before this album was released.

I actually own (and enjoyed listening to) an earlier Hot Chip album ("The Warning"), so it's nice to get a different listen to this band. I'll admit that I must have last listened to "The Warning" many years ago, as this album doesn't sound all that familiar to what I vaguely recall as their sound; in fact, much of this album sounds much more like some 80s New Wave knockoff than anything else, which is a bit disappointing. And those videos! So painful, especially the horribly dated VR-based "Don't deny your heart". That said, I thought "Look at where we are", and the accompanying video, was probably the best track on the album (and the "Night & day" video wasn't too bad either). I also enjoyed "Flutes" and "Ends of the Earth".

I'm not exactly sure what I thought Rufus Wainwright sounded like, but *this* is not what I expected. I'm a bit bummed that it looks like we'll get the other half of this aborted double-album, as I feel like I've gotten a pretty good taste of his style with this album, but I'm not exactly surprised either. I'm not sure it's exactly fair to call him a modern-day (or at least more contemporary) version of the more orchestral tendencies of Elton John and Billy Joel and even David Bowie and Stevie Wonder, but those are the artists that came to mind as I swam through the somewhat painfully whirling sounds of Mr. Wainwright. Not really my taste, but it seems pretty well-produced, and I liked it that he clearly wrote and composed all the songs, sappy as they often seem. I feel badly only giving this album two stars, but I just *really* didn't enjoy slogging through this.

This collection has some seriously obscure-seeming and oddball albums in it, especially with the rap/hip-hop genre, and this album certainly falls into this weird Bermuda Triangle of musical experiments. I liked it that the music itself is more eclectic and creative than what we've been getting from other hip-hop albums in this collection (very much *not* gangsta style in any way), and there's something to be said for a concept album based on a bizarre time-traveling alien gynecologist character, but I'm not sure the whole is really greater than the product of its strangely-fitting parts (the juvenile parts, though, are generally offset by surprisingly high-brow chatter in songs like "No awareness", "Technical difficulties" or "Dr. Octagon"). Highlights for me were "3000" (made me think of MC 900ft Jesus), "Blue flowers" (both the original (including a pretty trippy video) and the "revisited" version) and "I'm destructive".

I really wanted to give this album four stars, simply for what feels like a very unique approach to hip-hop/rap, and to reward Kool Keith for his off-the-wall lyrics, Dan Nakamura for great production, and DJ Q-Bert's amazing scratching, but something--and I'm not sure what--just didn't quite work as well as I wanted it to. Sorry guys!

Well, *this* is definitely a blast from the past. I'm not sure I ever realized back in the day that Motörhead was just a trio, which kind of explains why they always sounded a bit thin compared to other metal bands of the time (mainly because there weren't two guitars, I guess?). I was never a big Motörhead fan back then, and while this is undoubtedly their best album, or at least most popular, listening to it now doesn't really increase my appreciation for them. (And I'm mystified that there's another Motörhead album lurking in this collection.) I also don't think I've knowingly heard most of the songs on this album aside from the title track (which I heard way too many times) and maybe a couple of others; I feel badly saying this, but as much of a metalhead as I believed I was at the time, I have a *really* hard time distinguishing between most of their songs. But I *do* appreciate how they were faster and harder-edged than the earlier metal bands of the 70s (almost kind-of-punk sounding), and I laughed when I read that lead man Lemmy insisted that they were just a rock-n-roll band. I also laughed that Lemmy claims he sung their hit single as "the eight of spades" for two years and nobody noticed; I'm sure I wouldn't have.

Another total unknown for me from this collection, and an interesting one at that. Although I'm not sure I'd have personally chosen to make a (far too) long album played through the lens of Lynyrd Skynyrd, they clearly thought that would be a fun project, and largely succeeded in keeping the theme and a fairly distinctive result (although they could have probably omitted the 2nd CD/vinyl without too much of a loss). I think my favorites were "Ronnie and Neil", "The Southern thing", and "Zip city", and also the final track "Angels and fuselage" for some unexplainable reason. I was struck by how several songs reminded me of Robert Earl Keen's music ("Days of graduation" and "Three great Alabama icons" in particular, both reminiscent of narrations in "Farm Fresh Onions"), an artist I wish was included in the collection, but I can see why the "1001 Albums" mentioned comparisons to Neil Young, given the almost-live-sounding production and prominent guitar playing.

Whatever you think of this at-times rough-sounding album, you have to give some credit for the fact that they recorded the album over several nights in a studio above a uniform factory at the end of a blazing Birmingham summer, plus that they had a GoFundMe approach to funding the album long before that even existed. A shame that they had a pretty brief stint as a band.

Well, it's hard to argue with a classic, even if it's not really a musical era that I'm really familiar with or much of a fan of. But there's no denying Prima's infectious enthusiasm and off-the-wall humor, and it's an easy and remarkably quick listen, with a surprising number of hits I've heard before. I'll admit that I'm a bit partial to David Lee Roth's version of "Just a gigalo / I ain't got nobody", but Prima's version is very distinctive (and of course much older). And I *finally* now know why his voice has always sounded familiar: he (very magnificently) played the orangutan's part in "The Jungle Book"!

I can only imagine how fun his sets were in the 50s at the Sahara in Las Vegas.

If you'd asked me before I heard this album, I'd have guessed that Tim Buckley was some sort of political columnist for a major paper in the US (maybe William's brother/cousin). It appears that's not the case, but I'm not at all sure why this is one of three of his albums in this collection (the first for me, but chronologically the last), given that (a) none of his albums sold well or got much play time on the radio, and (b) there's nothing particularly distinctive about his style or music (at least on this album). I enjoyed it well enough as early 70s rock, with a kind of eclectic mix of styles, and definitely appreciated the 40 minute run time, and I thought "Get on it", "Devil eyes" and "Make it right" stood out a bit. I kind of wish the "1001 Albums" editors had just stuck with one Tim Buckley album, though, as I'm pretty sure I will be tired of his albums long before we're actually through them. And a shame that the Wikipedia entry for this album doesn't help make him any less obscure or interesting.

Although I was very happy to see that we'd get to listen to Portishead in this collection, I literally had to double-take on this album to make sure it was really Portishead that I was listening to, as this sounds *nothing* like their previous albums, at least the ones I own (neither of which, curiously, are in this collection). And yet there's a thread of continuity, even beyond Gibbons' distinctive voice. I think my favorite tracks were "Silence" (partly just from the shock of such a different and distinct wave of sound), "The rip" and "We carry on" (both with compelling animated videos that reminded me of aspects of some of the animation in Pink Floyd's "The Wall"), and the almost vintage-Portishead-style "Machine gun". I also enjoyed the video to "Magic doors", although the song itself was almost too out there for my tastes, at least on first listen (but very cool that it used a hurdy-gurdy, which I had no idea was even an instrument).

Listening to the album, I felt like they had somehow internalized a band like Radiohead's desire to experiment, well beyond their earlier sound and feel; they almost out-Radioheaded the source, as I'd enjoy Radiohead a lot more if they'd produced more albums like this. This definitely seems like an album that (a) is best listened to as a whole, and (b) likely gets even more interesting with repeated listening. I'm not sure whether I'll spend that re-listening time any time soon, but hopefully I'll feel like it after this project is over. And what a fascinating reinvention of a band that I already enjoyed and admired.

An interesting selection from the collection for today. I'm not much of a folk song connoisseur (or afficionado), so this was all pretty much new to me, and of course it's hard not to think of Woodie Guthrie (or even his son Arlo), as those are folk artists I'm most familiar with that sound like Ramblin' Jack, but I'm sure there are many, many (many) others, although even I could recognize that Ramblin' Jack has more country twang, and also seems like a talented guitarist as well. (It *was* nice to get Woody Guthrie performing with him on "New York Town", or at least I think that's what happened in that song.)

I enjoyed the change of pace, but I'll admit I'm not well-versed enough to feel I can recognize if this was seminal or not. But I loved finding out that the album's reviewer in the "1001 Albums" book hosted Jack Elliott for a month, a personal connection I suspect few of the reviewers have had to most of the artists in this project.

It's funny--I always associated The Afghan Whigs with the whole British alternative/alt-rock scene, but I don't think I ever (actively) listened to them, and I doubt much of their stuff made it to the radio, so this was a totally uninformed conjecture. And although it's not totally off-base, the fact that they were an American band highlights how little I really knew (I'm guessing that "Whigs" was part of what threw me off in a continental sense). Overall, it seems like a fine sample of the 90s alt-rock genre, and I enjoyed it that I'd never heard any of the songs before, but I'll admit I'm unlikely to revisit the album. The only songs that kind of stood out for me were "Debonair", "Fountain and Fairfax" and "Now you know" (largely because they all had better guitar hooks than other tracks); "My curse" is also an interesting change of pace. (I had high hopes for their cover of "I keep coming back", but was kind of disappointed.)

I do wish the album's mix could have been a little better, though, as I would never have guessed that this was a breakup album without reading about it, as I found most of the lyrics largely indecipherable. And hilarious that Linda Ronstadt (on the same label when this album was released) thought the album cover was all but child porn. Also, kind of cool that Steve Earle ("Copperhead Road") was a member of the band when the album was produced.