Reviews by mitch058

I'm not sure I can say I enjoyed this album, but I really appreciate it that this project tuned me into the weird world of Pere Ubu and its avant-garage. (I'd rate this album up there with Laibach, Deerhunter, and John Martyn as a band and music-style that was completely unexpected and deceptively original.) It's hard to say that any of the tracks are favorites of mine, although "Laughing" and"Real world" kind of stuck in my brain for a while, and nearly all of the song titles are intriguing, even when the song itself didn't live up to its potential (here's looking at you "Sentimental journey"). David Thomas' voice is pretty distinctive, and the Allen Ravenstine's keyboard/synthesizer effects are equally odd and memorable (definitely contributing to the "avant" part of their garage). If nothing else, this album seems waaay ahead of its time musically, although I'm not sure there are many other bands or albums that ever really sounded like this, past or present. Thanks, 1001 Albums! (And thanks too for a nice review of the album, as Wikipedia's entry is abysmally terse and unhelpful.)

Argh--I have *no* idea why this album is in this collection, except perhaps that she became famous as the voice on "The girl from Ipanema"? She doesn't seem like a very strong singer, she's not a songwriter (or at least for these songs), and the songs aren't really all that interesting, even with the samba/bossanova take. And seemingly confirming the weirdness of this selection, the Wikipedia entry and even the book's entry for this album doesn't provide more than lukewarm interest in the album. Even though it's not really a fair comparison, I feel like since we haven't had to listen to Mrs. Miller's take on other people's songs, why do we have to listen to Astrud Gilberto's? They both rose to fame on the same song, and arguably Mrs. (Elva) Miller sold more records (but I'm very thankful that we won't be getting any of her albums).

Given the weird obsession in this project with multiple albums by various artists that probably don't deserve so many, I am utterly floored by the fact that this is the only solo Eric Clapton album. And while I feel like rewarding this possible oversight with 4 stars, in part because it's a solid album showcasing Eric Clapton's adopted sound, and of course his ever-popular cover of "I shot the sheriff", I now realize that we get other Eric Clapton solo efforts under Derek and the Dominoes ("Layla"), which really was all we needed and is really a stronger album than this one, which reminds me more of James Taylor than anything else. And too bad that "Let it grow" really *does* have a "Stairway to heaven" vibe (lite). So three it is!

Despite hearing and reading plenty about this album when it came out, I'm pretty sure I never actually heard any of this album, even the notorious "F*** da police". Speaking of which, it's fascinating how much controversy that song created in the police community and in the press back when this album got released (in Seattle at least), and how much talk there was of preventing album sales to protect police community relations, especially given the explosion of Crips- and Bloods-related gangs all along the West Coast and elsewhere. Looking back in 2024, there's something innocent about the controversy and reaction to this album, but also depressing how little has changed in so many ways. I think it's safe to say that this album didn't stir the pot as much as show a mirror. (I will say, though, that the reputation of this album made me more nervous than I probably needed to be about going to an NFL game in LA's Coliseum in the early 1990s, as I vaguely and erroneously thought the Coliseum was either in Watts or Compton.)

I had higher hopes for this album than what I experienced, but it's not a bad album; it's also not all that varied or insightful (although "Express yourself" has a nice almost-De-La-Soul-like vibe), and some songs are just embarrassingly vapid ("Parental discretion iz advised" and "I ain't tha 1" come to mind). I wish that this album was less glamorous-West-Coast-gang-vibe and more aligned with the likes of Public Enemy's searing lyrics, but it is what it was. Several of their members--especially Dr. Dre and Ice Cube--have certainly followed a much longer arc from their roots in NWA, and became more interesting musically as they went solo or on to other groups. (Although I also feel sad seeing Ice Cube's trajectory as he spins further down the conspiracy spiral.)

I've never heard of them nor heard them before, and while it's not earth-shattering it's entertaining and oddly eclectic. I'm not sure I'd go as far as to say that this album was "perhaps the most widely adventurous album" of 1974, but then again I don't know 1974 music very well, and there's certainly more range on this album than the opening track would suggest (although I think "The Wall Street shuffle" is probably their best on this album, closely followed by the last song "Oh Effendi"). I liked the hints of Elton John (mainly in the "Worst band in the world"), Simon & Garfunkel or maybe just Simon (mainly with "Hotel"), maybe a bit of early Queen ("Silly love" and "Baron Samedi") and some bits of Yes/ELP/Genesis (especially with "Somewhere in Hollywood", although it's mainly just some weird prog cabaret nonsense (so maybe *exactly* Yes/ELP/Genesis), Billy Joel ("Oh Effendi") and others in various songs, but it often felt a bit like a novelty album as they ping-pong from genre to genre. I *am* surprised that we didn't get one of their albums with a major hit (like their instantly recognizable "I'm not in love"), but maybe this had the right kind of medley for the book's editors?

Reading about how they created and funded their Strawberry Studios explains a lot about this album, though. Apparently they convinced a couple of bubblegum-pop producers to use their studio for three months straight and use them as session musicians, and they churned out dozens of apparently horrid songs with random titles and band names, and were able to upgrade the studio with the proceeds. It feels a bit like they never quite got out of that mode in making "Sheet Music".

I've enjoyed various Tom Waits albums and TV/movie appearances over the years, so it's nice to get him in this collection, even if what I've heard before is *much* more recent than this album. I'm not at all surprised that in many ways he sounded much the same in 1977 as he did in the 90s or 2000s (more gravelly as the years passed). Given that it appears there are five (5!) Tom Waits albums in this project, though, I do wish this wasn't quite as long as it is, but it's still an interesting experiment. If I hadn't read up on the album in Wikipedia, I wouldn't have realized that this was recorded in a studio, albeit one with a bar, tables, invited guests and an opening strip show to set the mood. (I love how the producer described the experience as "It was like Allen Ginsberg with a really, really good band.") I particularly enjoyed "Eggs and sausage" and "Warm beer and cold women".

That said, I found it hard to appreciate either the music or Waits' semi-spoken-word lyrics. It sets an interesting mood, but I kept realizing that I was acting like those annoying customers at a jazz lounge who barely register the music as they try to have a conversation with a tablemate. Not at all fair to the band members or to Tom Waits, all of whom are talented musicians. This may be a good exemplar of Waits' early career, but it's too long and probably too much Waits for this collection (given that there are four more albums by him).

Given how many references to this album are peppered through the other Wikipedia entries for other Beach Boys albums in this collection, I knew it was just a matter of time before we landed the apparently legendary "Pet Sounds". I was hoping it would be a revelation, or at least the album that would help me understand the widespread obsession with the band, but alas I remain ignorant and unworthy (and utterly floored by how voluminous the Wikipedia entry is--I suspect this may actually be the longest entry we'll get from all the albums in the collection).

I hadn't heard most of the songs from this album, and I'd be hard-pressed to distinguish them from each other, although I do recognize that there's quite a bit less beach and cars on the album, but plenty of girls/women. I also found the sole more-familiar tune a bit...unsettling, I guess. Listening to "Wouldn't it be nice" this time around had me wondering exactly how old the band members were, as it sounded like they were kind of fantasizing about being early teenagers, or worse yet fantasizing about being *with* very under-aged teenager-ish girls. I'm very confident they didn't mean to insinuate that, but it feels like a *lot* of Beach Boys songs are trapped in a horrible mid-teens amber, never moving forward or branching out (and I know that generalization may not exactly apply as much to this album). I'd guess at least some of the Boys also felt similarly trapped, especially as the band disintegrated over the years and Brian Wilson floated in and out. I'll give them credit (or maybe mainly Brian Wilson, since he seems to have felt that this was a solo album) that this album had a lot of Beatles-inspired music arrangement, so there's a bit more variety in the songs than just harmonies and organ/keyboard surf sounds.

Regardless, despite Brian Wilson's hope that this would be "the greatest rock album ever made", I just couldn't get into much of it at all. I'm sure it's blasphemy to give it only three stars, but I was close to just doling out two stars, but "Sloop John B" singlehandedly saved it from that fate. And now, only one more Beach Boys album to go ("Surf's Up")--yay!

I actually got this album a long time ago from this project (pre-group-enrollment), and while it's not my first (or 2nd or even 25th) choice for an album to listen to again within a year, I'm kind of glad I get a chance to actually review it (I only left a star rating, and an unfair 2 stars at that). For one, I'm a bit shocked this was already their 8th studio album by 1983, and even more shocked that they were only halfway through their studio album output. I'm also impressed at how many of the songs from this album stayed on the radio for a long time afterwards. And while they've never been on my list of great bands, this album is a pretty good example of how well they pivoted in the 80s to create a sound and shtick that kept them popular album after album for decades afterwards. The videos for their singles are all hilariously dated in so many ways, but with the exception of "TV dinners" they also have an impressive continuity between them (I now discover that the three videos were all produced by Tim Newman and have many of the same actors) and capture the very odd contrast of sounds and styles of the trio, and especially these days it's striking how apolitical they managed to be, especially since I'd guess they were more southern-fried than SoCal lefties.

I'm pretty sure I'd never heard most of the other (non-single) tracks on the album, but some of them were pretty interesting; "I need you tonight" sounds a lot like an Eagles song, although there are bits of the distinctive ZZ Top sound interspersed in it, and "Thug" has an interesting bass-line and beat to it (not too many lyrics, though). It looks like we'll also get their album "Tres Hombres", and while I'm not sure we really need *two* ZZ Top albums in this collection (even if the earlier one likely has much more of their boogie blues roots), this one definitely captures the 80s ZZ Top sound surprisingly well. (And I love it that Mark Knopfler tried (pretty successfully) to reproduce Billy Gibbons' trademark guitar sound on Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing" (and pretty successfully), but Gibbons never replied or helped him out, but acknowledged later that Knopfler more or less nailed it.)

Although I'm neither well-versed or particularly into a lot of 60s rock, I like it that (a) the album cover reminds me of a Ralph Steadman illustration, and (b) Jeff Beck participated heavily in this album, and (c) they went with a truly quirky album title (although I now discover that it's not really the official title of the album, sadly). An interesting(ish) mix of 60s blues/rock fare with the occasional foray into skiffle-sounding stuff and then (Beatles-inspired?) Eastern instruments and tunings. Not a lot of distinctive stuff here, but my favorite tracks are probably "Rack my mind", "Hot House of Omagararshid" (particularly the US version with a much more prominent Jeff Beck solo), and "He's always there". A shame we didn't get any Yardbirds music on this album with Jimmy Page *and* Jeff Beck playing together, although I kind of cheated and listened to the 1983 reissue of this album with a (mono) version of the dynamic duo's "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago", which wasn't quite as mind-blowing as I'd hoped....

This is all new to me (band and album), which I (usually) appreciate from this collection. And quite a contrast to the album from the day before ("Ready To Die" from The Notorious B.I.G.), despite coming out in the same year. From their opening track through most of the album, it feels like some sort of strange Elvis Costello/60s garage band/Pulp mashup with the occasional bit of grunge thrown in too. An odd combination, but it works surprisingly well, and most of their videos are weirdly manic and entertaining, especially their hit single "Alright" (also "Caught by the fuzz" and "Mansize rooster", less so for "Lose it", "Lenny" and "Time"). I also liked the energy of "Strange ones", and it certainly feels/looks like they enjoy playing together, channeling a sort of teen vibe in a surprisingly un-jaded way.

I also loved the bassist's description of the people who lived/hung out on Cowley Road in Oxford and who inspired "I'd like to know" and "Strange ones": "There's a lot of people around Oxford who are real spliffheads and that, who go and lie down in Port Meadow, but I'm not really sure about them. I'm not really sure that they're individuals: they're part of a much larger thing."

It's funny how I've heard the name "Notorious B.I.G." so much over the years, but as far as I know I've never heard anything by him, and don't actually know Biggie Smalls' story at all (although I guess I might have known he got killed right before his second album was released). Not the most promising start to the album between the endless f-bombs on "Intro" and plenty of n-words throughout, but I suppose that's largely par for course for 90s rap/hip-hop, particularly East Coast hip-hop, as depressing as it is to hear and watch the glamorizing of drugs, violence and sexism, although I do appreciate it that occasionally you get the darker side of it all on this album, and you definitely get a sense that Biggie Smalls experienced a lot of what he sings about. Interesting story-telling on several of the tracks, especially "Gimme the loot", the title track "Ready to die", and "Respect".

Overall, though, this is far too long for what you get, especially for a debut album. I'm glad to have finally heard it, but I doubt I'd revisit this, just based on my personal music tastes. (It reminds me of how I read this amazing review for E-40's "Charlie Hustle: Blueprint of a Self-Made Millionaire", went out and bought it, and then listened to it exactly once.)

It's funny how the opening chords to the lead track "Love vigilantes" sounds *so* much like The Smiths/Cure/Morrissey; I had to double-check I'd opened the right album for the selection of the day. Thankfully, Sumner's voice isn't quite like those bands, and the rest of the album is much more New-Order-y (for good and bad), although I was totally reminded of Yaz and then Dead or Alive ("You spin me round") in the opening chords of the last song on the album ("Face up"). Even though I feel like I've heard New Order a lot on the radio back in the 80s, I'm not actually sure I've ever heard any of the songs on this album. Their sound is somewhat distinctive (at least dating from their transition to the synth-heavy dance-pop that's on this album), but they've never been a favorite of mine, so this is only passably interesting as a blast from the past. (Personally, I'd likely (slightly) prefer Depeche Mode or OMD to these guys, but at least it's not Pet Shop Boys or Duran Duran, I suppose. And kudos to them for having real bass and guitar playing, at least.)

Curious that the video and single versions of both "The perfect kiss" and "Sub-culture" are quite different sounding than the album version. I had high hopes for the video for the former, as it was directed by Jonathan Demme, but it's remarkably bland and uninteresting, sadly. I'm not entirely sure why we have two New Order albums in this collection, as it seems like they're kind of a one-trick pony, but trying to figure out the selection method is an exercise in futility.

Too...much...PJ Harvey...in...this...collection. But at least there's only one more to go now, so that's nice. As with the other albums I've heard already ("Dry" and "Stories from the city, stories from the sea"), the tracks are just too flat and spare to do much for me, unfortunately, although this album is at least not nearly as dry as "Dry", likely thanks to Steve Albini's role as a producer. (I was also glad *not* to read any quotes from Albini about PJ Harvey or the album, given how Albini unfairly eviscerated the Pixies when he produced "Surfer Rosa". And it's interesting how there's a Pixies-like feel to this album, likely due to Albini's recording style.)

I'm not sure any of the tracks really spoke to me, although both "50ft Queenie" and "Man-size" had a little more life than many of them (unfortunately the videos were both strangely *un*-entertaining). And it's always nice to hear a Bob Dylan cover, part of my quest to find the best Dylan covers out there (although her "Highway 61 revisited" doesn't quite make the cut, it's definitely a creative version). Neither of those things, though, offset the lengthy dirge quality of the remainder of the album.

I'm not very familiar with Dylan's impressively massive discography, so most of this album is new to me (with the exception of "Tangled up in blue" and "Shelter from the storm", and maybe "Simple twist of fate"). I like it that the songs seem more personal than much of what I associate with Dylan, although I'm not sure why he protested so much that the songs weren't "confessions" or about his experience. His strength as a songwriter is clearly on full display here, but the music itself isn't all that interesting or inspiring, and it's hard to disagree with Mike Bloomfield's assessment when Dylan toured him through the album: "They all began to sound the same to me; they were all in the same key; they were all long."

I can tell this is a seminal album for Dylan, and a few of the songs on this album are really transcendent (mainly the ones I'd heard before), but the rest are frustrating to me as a non-Dylan-fan, as they could have been much more interesting if they hadn't been rushed through production (with the exception of "Meet me in the morning"). That said, I suspect giving this only four stars will land me in Dylan jail... :)

Try as I might, I really don't enjoy The Smiths, and that's not even accounting for Morrissey's horribleness. Consequently, I'm more than a little annoyed to see that we somehow managed to get three of their four albums in this collection, and then four Morrissey albums as well. Good for diehard fans of Morrissey, excruciating for everyone else (or at least me). I guess this album belongs in this collection more than the previously heard "The queen is dead", given all the radio hits on this album, but I just can't get into *any* of the music, I'm afraid, and what wasn't a radio hit is eminently forgettable. Or I hope I can forget it...

If we're only getting one Parliament album in this collection (and it appears we are), then what a most excellent choice. (Technically we get more George Clinton with a couple of Funkadelic albums, but Parliament has its own magic, I'd say.) From start to finish, this album has a great, mostly mellow funk groove, and a fun listen especially with headphones. And the album cover is icing on the cake.

It's a shame that this doesn't have my favorite Parliament song, "Chocolate city", nor my second favorite, "Get up for the down stroke", but you can't get everything, I suppose. And it was fun to hear a few new-to-me Parliament songs, although the endless farting in "Night of the Thumpasorus peoples" was a bit much.

It certainly seems inevitable that there'd be some Aerosmith lurking in this collection, and given the number of hit singles on this album, "Pump" seems pretty logical (although I wish I hadn't noticed that there are 3 Aerosmith albums in the project; that pretty much exceeds my Aerosmith saturation point by a factor of two). This is a solid album, especially for those who enjoy their style and Tyler and company's pretty distinctive style, and all those radio hits elevate this from 3 to 4 stars, I'd say. And despite some really dated and cringeworthy videos, it's also impressive how well Aerosmith pivoted from their classic hard rock sound to a more glam-rock focus. No awards for interesting music or lyrics, sadly--and I'm not even sure you can make an exception for "Janie's got a gun", although that's probably the closest we'll get to social commentary from them--but I'm not sure anyone really expects that from Aerosmith, especially on their 10th studio album....

I really enjoy listening to Beck, so this was a nice treat. And while I was mystified by the presence of the previous Beck album I listened to ("Sea Change"), I'm not at all surprised to see this album. Even though I don't own this album, I feel like I've heard nearly all of the songs on it before, and enjoyed all of them (the only ones I didn't really recognize were "Earthquake weather", "Broken drum" and the last three songs). I particularly enjoyed listening *and* watching "E-Pro", "Girl", "Black tambourine" and "Hell yes", as he seems to have consistently creative and entertaining videos to songs that are already fun to listen to (the ASCII-art nature of "Black typewriter" was particularly cool, as were the MAD-inspired fold-ins in "Girl"; bummer that he had a spinal injury filming "E-Pro").

What a nice contrast to his previous album "Sea Change", and a great return to form. And a lot of really interesting contributors to various songs, including the funny selection of Christina Ricci on "Hell yes". And what a pleasure to listen to an album that was enjoyable from start to finish. (5)

Well, that's another Deep Purple album behind us now (only one more to go). :) I actually think this album is better in some ways than "Machine Head", at least in terms of consistency across the album, but it doesn't have anything to compare with "Smoke on the water", and it doesn't have the bizarre production storyline, and it has waaay too much noodling. But it's brief, I'll say that.

I feel like I've run across her name plenty of times over the years, yet never had a feel for what she sounds like, or even whatever genre (or two) she inhabited. And yet when I listened to this album, I realized that (a) I've heard a few of her tunes on the radio (yet none from this album, curiously, and really only "Luka" sticks with me), and (b) she remains somewhat muddled in my mind, mixed in with all these other somewhat anodyne 80s/90s folkish singer/songwriters. I think the latter problem is largely because she doesn't have a very powerful voice (at least on this album), and seems comfortable with keeping her perspective and involvement at a very long arm's length.

And I know it's not really fair to criticize an aesthetic that permeates 80s music (especially singer/songwriter music), but I really wish she'd been able to avoid the awkward rhyming cadence that seems to permeate a lot of the album (worst of all on the opening track "Cracking" and the pseudo-edgy closing track "Neighborhood Girls", but rarely absent from much of the album). I guess she helped pave the way for later, and much more interesting singer/songwriters, but what a shame that this collection has this album yet nothing by Toni Childs, whose debut album "Union" (1988) wipes up "Suzanne Vega" with a vengeance.