Reviews by mitch058

Aside from their radio hits--and really only "Call me", "One way or another", and "Heart of glass"--I don't know that I've ever really listened to *anything* by Blondie, and certainly not a full album. I can totally see how this album would represent for Blondie-devotees their best album, and I enjoyed discovering that there was more range in their arsenal than the first few songs on the album implied. "I know but I don't know" and to some degree "Will anything happen" even seem to display their NYC underground roots, a nice touch. (I also thought it was funny to have a few retro tracks like "Sunday girl" peppered throughout.) The two highlights for me on this album are the unsettling song (and video) "Picture this", and the Robert-Fripp-accompanied "Fade away and radiate".

But I also found I couldn't really get into this album, although I *really* appreciated how snappy the song lengths were. And the Wikipedia entry is a fascinating slow-burn evisceration by the producer Mike Chapman of every aspect of the band, from talent to lyrics to work ethic. By the end you feel badly for the band, but it all rings true to some degree. Regardless, this is clearly the most complete album by the band and an interesting intersection of their past and future, even if it didn't really do a lot for me personally.

It's kind of hard for the Eagles to top "Hotel California", and while this is a solid debut album, it's definitely not as consistently good or as interesting as their much later album (which I had the (mis)fortune of already hearing in this collection); I guess Joe Walsh helped them create a more distinctive sound? Either way, their radio hits on this album are all nice to revisit, although I'd kind of forgotten how subdued everything was from their early years (even "Witchy woman" is pretty mellow); it kind of reminds me of how different earlier Fleetwood Mac was than with "Rumours". And the new-to-me songs are fine but nothing spectacular; "Chug all night" is a particularly odd song, although a bit heavier than most of the other tracks, which is a nice change of pace, if only they could have chosen more interesting lyrics, and "Earlybird" is an interesting direction that they (perhaps wisely) didn't pursue long-term.

I know this has been a popular album over the years, but I kind of wonder whether Gleen Fry really achieved his goal that "We just didn’t want to make another limp-wristed L.A. country-rock record"?

I enjoy listening to The Who on an occasional basis, and enjoyed the previous album I listened to in this collection ("Who's Next"), but this really didn't do much for me, despite all the accolades as it being one of the best live albums of all time. I also feel like there's simply too many Who albums in this project (5 total), and this definitely doesn't need to be there.

I didn't listen to the whole Leeds/Hull playlist from later releases of this album, so maybe it gets better when you get the whole concert, but aside from hearing their enjoyable single "Substitute" I didn't really find much of the album distinctive or particularly interesting or even all that well-recorded, although "Shakin' all over" is probably the closest you get to getting a feel for how good their live shows were, and moments of the extended "My generation" are fun. I guess you really *did* have to be there, sadly.

I always appreciate it when this project throws up a name I've never heard of or heard, so this is much appreciated. And an interesting singer-songwriter album--she has a strong voice and she and David Rawlings have a great acoustic style. The title track and "I dream a highway" are particularly good, with a haunting style and nice guitar work (and amazing that "Revelator" was their mic test version); I also enjoyed finding out that "I want to sing that rock and roll" was recorded at Ryman Auditorium (to an appreciative audience). I do wish there was more variety across the album, more from a sound and style perspective than the range of lyrics, I suppose, and I definitely preferred the tracks without as much banjo-playing, as those tended to feel shoehorned into a more bluegrass style that isn't quite as interesting/unique to me. (Although I have several albums I've enjoyed that veer into that territory, I'll admit.)

I'm not at all surprised to read that she worked extensively with T-Bone Burnett and also played a role in the music for "O Brother Where Art Thou", as this album fits well into those styles, but also somewhat different; I'm reminded in some ways of artists like Daniel Lanois or Lucinda Williams or even Ollabelle. If there were more tracks like "April the 14th part 1" and "Everything is free", and fewer like "My first love" or "Dear Someone", I'd have definitely upgraded her to 4 or 5 stars (I do wish I could give a half-star more in this case, though). But I don't think that's really her/their focus, I'll admit.

A curious choice for a Queen album for this collection, given how many radio hits Queen has had, and yet I don't think *any* of the songs on this album count as one of them. It definitely *sounds* like Queen--almost more princess than queen, as they struggle to emerge from a prog rock orientation--and that's always nice to hear. My favorites were "The loser in the end" (mainly because Taylor's compositions are so very un-Queen-like and yet still rocking) and the proto-Bohemian "The march of the black queen", but the rest is kind of forgettable, sadly, and poor Brian May's side ("White side") is actually painful, although fun to hear May sing lead vocals on "Some day one day". I also really wanted to like "The fairy feller's master-stroke", mainly for the backstory of this weird/sad/ornate painting, but the song wasn't for me.

I'm not really sure this particular Queen album is must-hear-before-you-die-worthy, frankly, although I certainly wouldn't go as far as Christgau's eviscerating and hilarious summary of the album as "wimpoid royaloid heavyoid android void." (I also can't agree with Nikki Sixx's evaluation that "Queen II will knock your dick in the dirt every time"....)

Hm. This is the first of 5 Byrds albums in this collection, which sets a pretty high bar for each album. And I don't think this really cuts it, despite their wholehearted embrace of country in this semi-concept album. I didn't particularly enjoy most of the album, sadly, mainly because this isn't outstanding country music (even if it's far out of their wheelhouse, except for Gram Parsons, of course), but there's nothing wrong technically with their playing, and the highlights are probably "You ain't goin' nowhere" (Dylan cover, curiously), "You don't miss your water" and "You're still on my mind", with "One hundred years from now" and "Nothing is delivered" the only country-rock-sounding songs on the album (too bad, as a whole album of that might have been a lot more interesting). I can only hope that the next 4 Byrds albums are more interesting, and I feel for poor Gram Parsons, trying so hard to crusade for country rock, and burning out of the Byrds in the process. And the Wikipedia entry makes for a fascinating soap opera of anxiety and competing egos, and an eviscerating time in Nashville.

This is actually my second listen to this album in this project, as I got it before joining a group. Sadly, I didn't leave any notes from my first time, but did give it a 5, I think largely on the weight of its reputation. Regardless, it's a fun listen, and while it's far too long (and occasionally too winding), it's an incredibly solid debut album (and curiously her only solo album), with a great mix of Fugees sounds and her own style and distinctive voice. I particularly enjoyed "To Zion", "Doo wop" (and the awesome split-screen 60s/90s video) as well as the very Fugees-inspired "Forgive them Father" and the fun and creative video for "Everything is everything".

I suspect if she had been more selective in the track list, I'd have probably given it 5 stars again, but I guess the second listen showed me some room for improvement on a very solid album....

This one definitely comes straight out of left field--I've never heard of her/him or this album, and I'm quite confident I've never heard any of these songs before. The music in many of the tracks doesn't really do all that much for me--a bit too semi-retro-80s-pop for my taste--but the videos are absolutely hypnotizing, largely from her/his physical strength and presence and an incredible variety of settings to "Comme si", "Girlfriend" and "The Walker" (not as much with "5 dollars"). I actually preferred the music more on the non-video tracks, especially "Doesn't Matter" and "Damn (what must a woman do)" (I kept hearing "what must a puma do"...), but I also enjoyed the seamless Franglais throughout, although I'll admit I chose not to listen to many of the French version of the songs. And kudos to Chris/Rahim C Redcar for earning 4 Victoires de la Musique!

I was excited to see a Cream album pop up in this collection, and I also liked the somewhat-obscure-political-reference-sounding album title. But then came away feeling like I had *far* too outsized expectations for both the first-ever-superband and their album (and very disappointed to find out the "Disraeli" reference had nothing to do with the Right Honorable Mr. Benjamin). It's hard (maybe impossible) to find fault with "Sunshine of your love", of course, but that seems to be it on this album; the opening track starts you off on a bad foot, and then there's this weird alien insertion of "Sunshine" to blow your little mind, and then the remainder of the album is back to sad, occasionally-falsetto 60s generic rock, with a small exception for "Tales of brave Ulysses" and "SWLABR". How can the sum of several (well, three) incredibly talented musicians equal quasi-psychedelic-rock mush? Maybe it's because they had to record the album in a hurry due to expiring visas, or maybe just that veering away from their blues wheelhouse ran them on the rocks of mediocrity. A shame too that this is the only Cream album in the collection (although maybe it's a blessing?).

I'll admit I've never been a 60s/70s jazz rock/fusion afficionado, or fan for that matter, so this album doesn't really do a lot for me. But I can see how "Birdland" became an instant classic (at least in certain circles), and I also enjoyed "Teen Town", both for brevity and the lead bass. It's also nice to get exposed to some Jaco Pastorius, as I've heard much more about him than anything *by* him, and I can see how much Weather Report benefited from his participation. And while I can see connections in this to music I've enjoyed listening to from decades ago (Jeff Beck, Al Dimeola, even some (later) Chick Korea and Herbie Hancock), I'm not sure I'd come back to this album, especially with all those awkward-sounding synth sections.

I've often wondered how much better this album would have been if it had been made five years earlier, or ten years later, and avoided the growing pains of the 80s in the process (too much sax at times, too many keyboards, drum-machine-sounding beats, weird experiments with semi-easy-listening interludes, and those ubiquitous headbands). But despite that, this is still a really entertaining Dire Straits album, with a surprising number of radio hits on it. My favorites of the lot are the mainly the hits, especially the title track (whose video rivals some of the war imagery in Pink Floyd's "The Wall") as well as the iconic "Money for nothing" (whose video doesn't age as well but remains MTV's launchpad, and I never knew that was Sting singing "I want my MTV"!); the video for "Walk of life" is a great 80s sports nostalgia visit. "Your latest trick" seems like a strange coda for their earlier and far superior "Private investigations", and the "So far away" video is a bit puzzling, in that it's fun to see the band having a great time playing and recording a classic of theirs, but also very incongruous to have everyone smiling as they sing about the frustrations of a long-distance relationship... A few of the other songs on this album seem surprisingly disposable, given how strong the good ones are (looking at you especially, Buffett-like "Why worry"). But they're not frustrating enough to downgrade from 4 to 3 stars, and I really enjoyed "The man's too strong", even with the Paul-Simon-"Boxer" sounds. Mark Knopfler has a great and distinctive guitar style that I've always appreciated, and it shines in places on this album.

I'm also glad to see there's another Dire Straits album in the collection, as it feels criminal to not get my all-time favorite Dire Straits song "Sultans of swing" (and one of my favorite songs period). And I'm really surprised how acidic the early reviews were for this album (especially UK critics); I mean, the 80s sound wasn't kind to anyone, but it's not *that* awful....

What an impressive debut album! I know there are other classics from their later albums, but this has a surprising number of hits that have withstood the test of time (regardless of their politics). My favorites on the album are also the ones I've heard many many times before: "Free bird", "Gimme three steps", "Simple man", and "Tuesday's gone" (ironic that the album producer nearly killed "Simple man" before it was even recorded). I don't think I've previously heard the remainder, but there are a few good ones in there too. The leading track "I ain't the one" was surprising how much it sounded like ZZ Top (as in, ZZ Top was clearly inspired by this song, not the other way around).

Pro tip: although it's a better choice than some of the chain restaurants in the area, Skynyrd's in Kennesaw, Georgia, is a middling-at-best restaurant, even if the band *did* (maybe?) play there way back when....

I should probably be (and am) embarrassed to say that the only Carole King music I'm familiar with is the soundtrack she did for the Maurice Sendak animated "Really Rosie" series. This album is clearly not in that vein, and rightfully so. And I sense that this is probably one of her best albums, or I hope so since it's the only Carole King album in the collection. Unfortunately, it doesn't really do much for me, probably in part because I didn't grow up hearing her music, although I did enjoy "Smackwater Jack".

Ironically, when I heard her two biggest hits on the album ("I feel the earth move" and "It's too late"), I immediately thought they were kind of weak, easy-listening covers of songs by other songwriters. I didn't really enjoy those songs on this album, but they're both good songs in other artists' hands, so I give her lots of credit for that. And that's true of many other songs on this album she wrote or co-wrote--especially "You've got a friend", "(You make me feel like) A natural woman" and "Will you love me tomorrow". I guess she's a singer's songwriter, as evidenced by all the stars participating on this album. Although there's nothing wrong with this album, it's just not to my taste, and I'm really glad it's been so incredibly successful over the years. It makes me wish my parents had this album around when I was a kid, as I'm sure I would have an infinitely greater appreciation for it now.

I've known the group's name for years (decades, I suppose), but as far as I know I've never listened to any of their albums, and I doubt I've heard much of their work on the radio (or at least the radio stations I've listened to). It's an impressively wide-ranging album, and the album is tight and well-produced, albeit too long, and I'm not sure I can really agree with "The Rolling Stone Album Guide" highlight of "Water" as an amazing track. I was also impressed at how the early small intermission-like tracks have some of the more interesting range of styles in this album ("!!!!" has some Fishbone-inspired guitar licks/sounds, and I enjoyed the spoken word "WAOK (Ay) rollcall"). I particularly enjoyed the track/video "The seed (2.0)", definitely a highlight of the album; and also the semi-Public-Enemy-style "Thought @ work", and the pounding "Quill", and I largely enjoyed the jazz-poetry-experiment of "Something in the way of things (in town)".

It's not really my taste musically, so I'm not sure I can really judge whether this was as ground-breaking as the Wikipedia entry seems to suggest, and it does seem weird that the project didn't have The Roots' previous album ("Things Fall Apart") given that album's breakthrough success (and more well-known status), but I *do* like the title and the album cover, dripping with irony.

It's kind of curious that this collection has the first and second album by Crosby Stills & Nash, and nothing else, mainly because these two albums seem somewhat interchangeable. When I started playing this album, in fact, I actually wondered if somehow I'd gotten the same album I'd listened to before, but then realized it was just that there were another bunch of radio hits on this album too (as well as a thankfully much smaller number of largely forgettable harmony-driven tracks). I *do* like it that Neil Young's influence can be heard and felt on this album, as there's definitely more instrumentation to many of the songs (compared to their Young-less debut album). And the radio hits remain both familiar and fun to listen to once again; especially "Teach your children" and "Carry on", but also "Our house" and to some degree "Woodstock". I also enjoyed "Almost cut my hair" as a surprisingly not-CSN-sounding song, and Young's "Helpless" sounds almost better on this album than his own releases. Overall, though, there's not much cohesion to the album, a product it seems of the way each band member recorded and composed on their own.

I've never been a big fan of Depeche Mode, I'll admit, even though they're (to me) probably one of the most complete and talented members of the 80s New Wave synth sound. That said, I can't say how often "Personal Jesus" runs through my head, and I'm very glad to see that this album has that song, as it's one of my favorites (for reasons I can't really explain). There are also quite a number of impressively interesting videos accompanying the tracks on this album (especially "Halo", but also "Enjoy the silence" and the Pink-Floyd-inspired "Clean"), although the video for "Personal Jesus" makes me think that perhaps it's not as insightful a song than I always imagined it to be.... Judging alone by how many tracks made the radio rounds, this is a very solid album, and I was surprised how much I enjoyed it.

Like a few other bands in this collection, I have a hard time being fair or objective to REM, largely because a guy I knew (and thoroughly despised) in college was such a fanboy of this whiny-sounding college-town band. But the upside of this is that I really haven't heard much of REM beyond what played on the radio way back when, so nearly all of this album is new to me (except "Radio free Europe", and also has the benefit of being a debut album, when they hadn't quite honed the somewhat smug and whiny sound that I (unfairly) associate with them. On the other hand, given that there are four REM albums in this collection, I'm not really sure why this album was included, except for perhaps the fact that this is the first album for the world to hear REM's fairly distinctive sound and style. It seems like a fine album overall, and I enjoyed "Moral Circle" and "9-9" in particular. And I know it's not fair to rate them down simply because the project's editors decided to inundate us with a band that I happen to have an irrational dislike for.

Well, quite a contrast to Guns N' Roses, I must say. I know Love was pretty popular back in the day, but this album at least doesn't seem to have aged very well, perhaps because it's all over the map stylewise, waaay too much flute, and a strange choice to devote half the album to one song. "Seven and seven is" is a truly interesting proto-surfer-punk-ish song, and "Stephanie knows who" has some promise, but that's not enough to justify an album (even one as considerately brief as it is). And all the shenanigans of the band trying to get out of the Elektra contracts doesn't really add to the mystery or mystique, I must say (but they definitely benefited from getting the Doors producer on this album, especially with "Revelation"). Given that we're also getting what seems to be universally considered Love's (sole) masterpiece, "Forever Changes", I wonder why this album is even here?

I never really know how to rate Guns N' Roses. I despised them with a passion when I was a teenager, but more from envy than anything else, and even then I understood what my friend saw (and idolized) in how impressive Slash was. This is clearly their signature album, and really impressive for being a debut, and it has so many permanently-popular songs on it that it's nearly a greatest hits album on its own. Except that the other songs, of which there are *far* too many, are forgettable and interchangeable. But it's hard to ignore what a strange and far-reaching influence this band had on the glam/metal/rock scene. So as much as I *still* don't really enjoy listening to them, I can't help but give them a 4-star rating. Welcome to the jungle indeed.

I like this not-really-Beach-Boys sound a lot more than the original band, I'll admit. I know this album came out later than most of the Beach Boys' albums, but it still feels like it has more of an edge and a more instrument-focused perspective, both of which improve the listening experience (a lot). "River song" helps the album come out of the gates charging, and I also particularly enjoyed "Friday night" (especially the Pink-Floyd-esque intro) and "Pacific Ocean blues". Thankfully, there are only a few tracks too ersatz Beach-Boys for my taste; mainly "What's wrong" and "You and I". (Only a fellow Beach Boy could have listened to this album and pronounced "Dennis, that's funky! That's funky!" But I suppose Brian was right, comparatively speaking....)

I'll admit to not knowing much about any of the Beach Boys, but reading about Dennis Wilson's life and early death is incredibly tragic. What a bummer that his far more interesting-sounding voice and style on this album was the product of a lot of substance abuse, exposure to messed up stuff like the Manson family, and a lot of mental health issues.