Reviews by mitch058

I'm a bit shocked that this is the first Grateful Dead album I've gotten after nearly 400 albums, and equally shocked that there are only two in total of their albums in this collection. I'm not really complaining, though, as I'm not a big fan (or connoisseur), but given the legions of Deadheads I figured we'd get as many or more of their albums than, say, the Beatles or David Bowie.

Seems like a fine album to me, and what I kind of visualize as what a Dead album would sound like, albeit with less noodling and endless tracks than I figured was a fixture for them (but maybe that's due to a more folk/country focus than other albums? Or maybe they reserved the endless songs to live shows? I must admit that "Attics of my life" *felt* endless regardless...). The Dylanesque "Friend of the devil" and the quasi-Cash-like "Operator" were probably my favorites, and it was nice to get some of their enduring hits like "Ripple" and "Truckin".

I was neither tuned in or dropped out--or for that matter even alive--when this album came out, so I can only read about the context of this allegedly groundbreaking album, and marvel at how unassuming this first psychedelic rock album is. Apparently Country Joe said "If you want to understand psychedelic music, and you haven't heard Electric Music for the Mind and Body, then you probably don't know what you're talking about." That latter part fits me to a tee, although I'll admit to having not all that much interest in psychedelic music in general, and it's only mildly interesting to hear potential antecedent to the Doors, Beatles and others on this album.

A fine album overall, but nothing really drew me in either. I can see why "Not so sweet Martha Lorraine" was their only really successful single, and there's something a bit compelling about "Porpoise mouth" (and in turn makes me feel like Ween pulled directly from this song for their album "The Mollusk"). I also like it that Country Joe and the Fish is an obscure reference to Stalin and Mao respectively--a biting reference that's both far more subtle and more piercing than the ham-handed "Super bird" skewer of Lyndon Johnson. And what a shame that the label refused to include "I-Feel- Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag" on this album out of political caution, as it's far more interesting than most of this album collectively.

I'm not much a Beastie Boys connoisseur (or particular afficionado), so it was a bit of a surprise to get one of their albums with only one single I recognized ("Sabotage"). But I enjoyed listening to it, and was happy to hear they'd evolved from their fun debut (so far the only other Beastie Boys album I've listened to in this collection, although I can see that "Paul's Boutique" will eventually get into the rotation too). I was a bit surprised how much they'd moved on from the screaming harmony rap of their earlier years, but this was pleasantly offset by a lot more instruments being used, and some great samples too. I think "Root down" was my favorite track on the album (along with the fantastic video), and "Sabrosa" the best instrumental on the album (with second place going to "Futterman's rule", in part because of the much later video added to the track full of "Sabotage" video outtakes), with honorable mention to "Boddhisatva vow" for its interesting take on old-school Beastie Boys. I was also struck by how much "Sabotage" sounded like it could have been on a Rage Against the Machine album (although perhaps not as much lyrically, and the fun Spike Jonze video definitely didn't ooze RATM at all). And I loved it that Q-Tip was featured on the otherwise not all that memorable "Get it together".

This is another album that deserves a half-star rating system, as it's clearly better than just a middling three stars, but it feels a bit too long and meandering for non-fans to warrant four stars, in my opinion. But since we don't get half-stars, they get the BB boost.

Despite actually owning a Sonic Youth album (1992's "Dirty"), I've never quite managed to enjoy listening to them, and this album unfortunately falls into that pattern too. I feel like this is a personal failing, since they're pretty much in the pantheon of indie/alt rock from the 80s and 90s, and I feel like I *should* enjoy their sound and style far more than I do, but there's just something about their wall of off-key distorted guitar and bass that just doesn't quite do it for me. I *did * appreciate the helpful Wikipedia entry for the album, especially how it pointed out the references and connections in this album, and it helped me appreciate songs like "The sprawl" (with its William Gibson references), "Hey Joni" (with its sprawling references to "Hey Joe", Joni Mitchell and even William Gibson) and even "Rain king" (Pere Ubu homage) and "Eliminator, Jr" (a weird and not very obvious combo of ZZ-top and Dinosaur Jr) more than I might have otherwise.

I'm also bummed that I don't enjoy them more than I do, given that this is the first of five Sonic youth albums in this collection. Like too many other artists and bands in this collection, I wish the editors of the book has exercised the practice of less is more with their selections, as there are so many other albums and artists that could have been included in the project with just a little more parsimony. Ah well.

I'm pretty sure I've never heard anything from this album before, or for that matter anything by Shuggie Otis, aside from perhaps his work with his father, but I'm pretty sure I haven't heard much by Johnny Otis either. And I appreciated that the album started off strong with the title track "Inspiration information", but disappointed that it kind of dissipated quickly for me after that.

I was impressed to read that Shuggie Otis played most of the instruments on the album, and got into (analog) drum machines so early on, and I was kind of hoping this album might have an undiscovered Stevie Wonder or Prince vibe. But I think there's a reason why this album never made waves. I wish it was otherwise, but in many ways this is very much the definition of the product of a nepo baby, and I'm not really sure why this album is included in this collection, frankly.

Although it's their debut album, this is actually the second Tribe album in this collection for me (I had already heard "Low End Theory" quite a while back). In this case, I wish I'd gotten their albums in chronological order, as I don't think both albums warrant four stars each, yet I foolishly gave "Low End Theory" 4 stars, not realizing we'd get more. This album definitely deserves the four stars more--really 4.5 stars if that were possible--in part because it's their debut album and also because there's simply more variety on this album than on "Low End Theory". And of course there's the eternally fun "Bonita Applebum" on this album, plus a few other fun tracks ("Push it along" for the first 4 minutes or so, "Pubic Enemy"). I'm also really impressed at the range of Q-Tip's samples and references, even if many of the tracks end up having a very similar format.

Much like with "Low End Theory", I was struck by how much this album evokes De La Soul at times, and thankfully the Wikipedia entry for this album finally clarifies why that is, as Q-Tip not only appears on De La Soul's "Three Feet High and Rising", but also early on Tribe, Funk Brothers and De La Soul all formed a "collective" called "Native Tongues". Too bad they never did a mega-album with all of them (and the other later members).

I guess I must be in the backwaters of this project, as this is the second day in a row getting a strangely obscure album (yesterday's was "Bitte Orca" by Dirty Projectors). Thankfully, this album isn't as grating as "Bitte Orca", but it's also not all that distinctive either. And it's in the running for one of the shortest Wikipedia entries, which is usually not a great sign. Most of the songs didn't really stand out to me, but I thought "Laughingstock" was a good tune.

According to the "1001 Albums" entry, they've been labeled "the most criminally underrated band in the world." I'm not sure any crimes were committed in downplaying their potential, to be honest, but I'm also not sure why they didn't get more exposure beyond a cult following in Europe, as there's nothing too harsh or offensive about this album, and it definitely has that 80s/90s indie sound down pat. Interesting that they compared themselves to REM "constantly"; I suspect that bred a lot of resentment when REM took off and they didn't. And interesting too that frontman Mark Eitzel started off doing punk, as this album seems very *un*-punk (except "Bad liquor" I suppose).

Hm. I suppose I should be as appreciative of getting this album as I was the previous one (Fairport Convention's "Liege and Lief"), as I can't say I particularly enjoyed either album but also had never heard of them before this project, and in Fairport Convention's case it felt like a missing puzzle piece in my very vague sense of British music genre histories. But I'm struggling to feel appreciative of much of anything in "Bitte Orca", except perhaps that it's not an overly long album, a rarity among the 21st-century entries. (I vaguely hoped that the video for "Stillness is the move" might be a highlight, but all I can say is that it will likely reinforce any existing feelings towards the band, for good or (in my case) bad.)

I *did* enjoy reading this reflection in the Wikipedia entry (by Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear): "Bitte Orca is so distinctly Dirty Projectors that I didn't even know how to begin to describe what genre it is, you know? What would one categorize it as?" I agree completely, although he had a much more positive take on that than I do. Uncharitably, I would probably categorize this album (and possibly the band) as more than a bit pretentious, disappointingly jarring, and as far as I can tell very happily living in a musical cul-de-sac. Although a bit of a mystery why it got included in the first place, I'm not at all surprised to discover that this album only made it into one edition of this project's book (2011 edition).

Although not really to my taste, I'm really glad to have had this album in this collection, simply for the chance to listen to something that I would never had listened to otherwise and that appears to have a fairly important place in a stream of music history (in this case, British folk rock). I also appreciate getting something founded by (and featuring) Richard Thompson, as it helps expand my very limited exposure to him and his approach to music (which previously mainly consisted of hearing "1000 Years of Popular Music" and his occasional contributions to various albums and artists in this collection).

If their other albums are like this one (albeit with more original material and fewer ancient songs), I feel like Fairport Convention is a sort of antidote--or perhaps a more palatable alternative--to the fairy-ness of prog rock bands and others like Led Zeppelin or (earlier) Queen, as well as to the acoustic-only American folk rock from the 60s. (And I guess I'll get to see, as we also get their earlier "Unhalfbricking".) Admittedly, there were few tracks that I genuinely enjoyed--"Matty Groves" and "Tam Lin" might have been the only ones--but I appreciated the blend of often *very* old songs and a more modern rock sound. Aspects of this album made me think of Billy Bragg's 1985 cover of "The world turned upside down", and I was very relieved that *none* of this album was reminiscent of much later pet projects like Sting's "Songs From the Labyrinth".

Interesting that we actually get two Massive Attack albums in this collection, but I'm glad that this was my first one in the project. I own this album (as well as "Mezzanine", sadly not the other Massive Attack album in this collection), but it's been a long time since I last listened to it. I'm really impressed how more than 30 years later it still sounds fresh and distinctive, bringing trip-hop into being. I particularly enjoyed the opening track "Safe from harm" and the Faithless-reminiscent "Five man army" and "Daydreaming".

I kind of prefer their later albums, but it's hard to deny how influential "Blue Lines" was as their debut.

This album makes me wonder just how many versions of "The girl from Ipanema" are in this collection. Regardless of the number, though, it's hard to beat the 1964 Gilberto version, and poor old Blue Eyes utterly fails to capture the same spirit despite Tom Jobim's presence and piano/guitar work on both versions (respectively). And sadly, as crooning as Sinatra can be, the rest of the album sounds like some Muzak version of a generic English-translated bossa nova album. It says a lot of my cluelessness about the context of 1968 that this album lost out on a Grammy for album of the year to "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"; I wouldn't have ever imagined that something this slow and mellow would even get a Grammy nomination, honestly. An interesting selection to round out the Sinatra albums in this collection.

What a strange album to include in this collection, especially since it's the only Billie Holiday we'll get. I'm not at all familiar with her career, and my first thought was that I hadn't realized how similar she sounds to somebody like Nina Simone, only to uncover that she predated Simone by quite a bit and that the sound on this album (vocals as well as string orchestra) is not at all what she was best known for. I'm glad that she felt this was her favorite recording, because otherwise it seems a bit cruel to have this be the lone album to represent her.

In many ways this seems a lot like Johnny Cash's "American IV: The Man Comes Around"-- albums by powerful forces in music whose voices are literally croaking in their final years, ravaged by alcohol and drug abuse. I really enjoyed Cash's final studio album, in part because he chose remarkably diverse songs to cover (like Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" or NIN's "Hurt") and gave them a very Cash-like cast (and I'm looking forward to hearing this album in this collection). Similarly, Holiday's choice to cover Great American Songbook standards in a distinctive gravelly voice is an interesting choice on her part (especially given her jazz career), but I'll admit I don't particularly enjoy listening to these songs or style of music, sadly. that said, the final track "The end of a love affair" seemed to capture everything good and bad and tragic about this album and Billie Holiday's decline.

This is the third and final Hendrix album for me in this collection, and also his third and final studio album by a nice coincidence (well, the last album as the Jimi Hendrix Experience). Definitely better than "Axis: Bold As Love", but not as tight as "Are You Experienced", and a bit long in the tooth at times (although there's something to be said for the sprawling and meandering live-sounding "Voodo Chile", I'll admit).

It's fun to hear some of his classics in their native habitat, and it's remarkable how his style and music *still* sounds incredibly distinctive and entertaining many decades later. My favorites are "Crosstown traffic", "Gypsy eyes" and his excellent cover of "All along the watchtower" (for me, the latter remains among my all-time favorite covers, the way it elevates a good song into a great song).

This is number two of five Springsteen albums, and definitely a lot more unfamiliar than the songs on his earlier "Born to Run". In many ways, though, I found this a more interesting album than "Born to Run", as he doesn't sound like he's trying to pound his sound in your face. It's also interesting as a collection of solo demo tracks that never got the E Street Band treatment (for good and bad); I'm kind of reminded of Neil Young's Voice-O-Graph album, "A Letter Home" (courtesy of Jack White). My favorites are probably the opening track "Nebraska", "Atlantic City" (apparently his first music video), and the haunting "Highway patrolman" (very cool that Sean Penn created a movie based on this song), but I enjoyed almost all of the album, with the possible exception of the more conventional "Open all night".

I like the concept much more than I expected to, and really enjoyed all of side one, but I'll admit the second side didn't sustain my interest quite as much, and it's a bit hard to ignore how monochromatic most of the tracks seem without much else besides his voice, a guitar and a harmonica. Interesting, though, that this predated the whole "unplugged" movement by quite a bit, and it certainly gives me a lot of respect for Springsteen for branching out this way. I was also reminded strongly of both Townes van Zandt and Nick Cave, in different ways, but in very good ways too.

My initial (flippant) response to seeing this album was that it must be a "9 to 5" country album. And while that's not entirely wrong, it's also not at all fair to any of the trio. And while I'm not a huge fan of this style of country/traditional music, there's no denying how great they sound, both together and apart. A shame that it took them so long to finally be able to make this album (and then another ten years or so later), but I can certainly see why this album got many (many) awards. A shame in a way that this is the only appearance by Linda Ronstadt in this collection, but at least she made it in, I suppose. And kind of wild that one of the singles on this album is a cover of a Phil Spector song ("To know him is to love him").

Like a number of other prog rock bands in this collection, Genesis doesn't need more than one album for the vast majority of us to get the feel for them, and it's particularly frustrating that the two Genesis albums in this collection were created and released only a couple of years apart. At the very least, it would have been nice to get one Peter Gabriel-helmed album, and one Phil Collins-led album, but I guess that's not meant to be.

I'm not sure I could say that I enjoyed this album much more than "Selling England By The Pound", and I definitely wish this wasn't a double-album, as it loses steam long before the second disc is even ready, but I'll give them credit for taking the whole "concept album" concept pretty literally. I'd also say that the best tracks are found as you flip from Side 1 to Side 2 ("The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging" and "Back in N.Y.C." in particular), although "Counting out time" is also a fun self-contained number that also seem pretty out of place.

As a soundtrack to a musical about a Puerto Rican kid on a spiritual journey, it's definitely more musically interesting and engaging than Andrew Lloyd Weber's rock-oriented compositions (and I would highly recommend reading the Wikipedia entry for the album for the plot summary, as there's no way I would have ever found a story from the songs themselves). But that may not be saying much, I admit. And props to Peter Gabriel for finding some inspiration from Jodorowsky's films, with all their bizarre/allegorical mind-bending qualities. Interesting too that both Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel cite it as their favorite Genesis album.

I haven't listen to much Ray Charles in my life, so I have no idea whether this is one of his essential albums or not, but it was fun to get a strange mashup of big band sounds on one side and orchestral ballads on the other, especially at the end of a somewhat marathon catch-up session with this collection (and quite a nice contrast to both of the immediately preceding artists, Neil Young and Elvis Presley). I'm also impressed at how early this album is in this collection, which may partially explain the not-so-great production quality from the late 1950s. I'm not sure if this really highlights Ray Charles "genius" or not, but it's certainly more interesting musically than Sinatra's "Songs for Swinging Lovers" (at least the first side)...

Ugh--finishing this somewhat overly long album marks the halfway point in my Neil Young journey in this collection (counting his CSNY album too). Great for the Young fans out there, not so great for the tourists among us. But kudos to him for (a) wanting to revisit the concept of long, instrument-heavy rock in the 90s, and (b) recording a zillion single takes of the songs on the album and then just picking the one that spoke to them (rather than edits and dubs and so on). Both of these approaches come through loud and strong, and give a studio album an impressive live feel (as well as a strange bedfellow to grunge rock). I wish I enjoyed his voice and lyrics more than I do, as it's an interesting concept for an album.

I'm not an Elvis fan, so it's hard to say much about what seems like a very Elvis album (and now my third from this collection), although I *will* say that this is infinitely better than "From Elvis in Memphis", so there's that. I kind of feel like the "1001 Albums" entry's quote of Elvis kind of says it all: "I don't know anything about music. In my line you don't have to." Sad but true, and doesn't really help explain why we have three albums by him, but thankfully this is my third.

Although I'm in no way a Kinks connoisseur, I'm pretty sure this is one of their best albums (although apparently not all that successful commercially at the time), and certainly jam-packed with their acerbic humor and irony, mixed with a fair bit of nostalgic sincerity (I think). It's a bummer that they always sound to me like they were inspired by the Beatles, because I'm pretty sure that's only a product of me not knowing much of their music beyond their radio (and non-Beatles-sounding) singles. Although I'm not a huge fan of their garage-band sound (or maybe it's just the perhaps-intentionally low-quality production), I think my favorite tracks are the title track, "Animal farm", and "Wicked Anabella".

I like it that they took the late 60s in a different direction from psychedelic rock, and also that Ray Davies clearly understood how traditional life was falling apart and the allure and poison of romantic memories of the past and childhood; this album reminds me both of the movie "Hope and Glory" and the recently-heard Arcade Fire album "The Suburbs". Also kudos to the Wikipedia entry authors for one of the longest articles I've seen yet....