Reviews by mitch058

Although I didn't recognize the band's name, I realized as soon as I heard "Time to Pretend" that I'd heard (and enjoyed) them before, but not much more than their three hits ("Time to Pretend", "Electric Feel" and "Kids").

Sadly, the video for "Time to Pretend" is really painful and awkward, and almost makes me like the song less, until I read about how the inspiration for the song and video was from watching baby praying mantises crawl up this model ship in their dorm room while The Clash was playing.... Thankfully, the other two videos aren't as cringe-worthy, although what's with their lost-world-style gang of young white jungle people? "Kids" is by far the best song on the album, and almost gives them a 4-star rating by itself.

Otherwise, though, a good/entertaining album, although not as distinctive as I'd hoped after hearing songs other than their hits. I *am* impressed that the album was created by just two guys, kind of like a 21st-century version of Pet Shop Boys (kind of).

I've owned this album for a long time, and always enjoyed listening to it, so it's a bit hard to listen to the songs without associating them with various times and places. Regardless, I always feel like this could have easily been the soundtrack to "Repo Man" (the movie) and not skipped a beat, and I mean that as a high compliment. :) I think my favorite song is "Where is my mind?" although there's only a few that aren't up there as good-to-great songs.

It's very cool to read how this album was an inspiration for Kurt Cobain for "Nevermind", and other artists too. A huge bummer, though, that the producer (Steve Albini) totally bad-mouthed the band after helping make a great album ....

I've always enjoyed the rare appearance of a Pogues song in my life (radio, movie, maybe streaming channel), so it's fun to get a whole album by them. And it's pretty much what I imagined; not the sort of thing that I'd probably have on repeat, but a pretty distinctive style that holds up well over the years (at least when you're in the mood for "folk punk", which seems like as a genre has exactly one member...). Oddly (or perhaps not), this album brings to mind Billy Bragg, in a good way. That and suddenly wanting a pint or two of a half & half (as in Guinness and Harp, not the dairy drink).

I love it that Elvis Costello produced the album. And the album cover is a great doctored version of a classic (albeit ugly) painting, and I strongly suspect provided inspiration for the later Crash Test Dummies album "God Shuffled His Feet". And I think it says so much of so many things that the Pogues' version of "Dirty Old Town" is the walk-on music for the Salford City Football Club in England.

Oof. A pretty outrageous entry in this collection, given that it's asking for 3 hours of your life on what's likely an unknown quantity for most listeners (and while I've actually heard parts of this album before, I had the added disadvantage of feeling pressed for time trying to catch up with missed albums from traveling, but I really did listen to it all (really!)). Regardless, while there's a pretty understandable oversaturation trying to listen to this album in a single stretch, I'm still really impressed at the range of styles and love-song-themes in this album, and enjoyed most of them more than I expected. I'm kind of glad, though, that Stephin Merritt never pursued his original concept of staging the album as a theatrical revue, and find it a bit hard to imagine being one of the few people who attended their two-night performances of all 69 love songs. I feel like this album is best appreciated in small bites, maybe as part of a massive shuffle-play of many albums. And I'm also really impressed that this was created in 1999, as it anticipated the sort of album that would be perfect to be made and listened to during COVID....

The ones I liked more than others (in album order): "All my little words", "Reno Dakota", "Come back from San Francisco", "The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side", "Let's Pretend we're bunny rabbits", "The Book of Love" (especially for its Peter Gabriel connection), "Nothing matters when we're dancing", "Love is like Jazz" (not perfect, but I liked the variety there), "No One will ever love you", "Promises of Eternity", "Long-Forgotten Fairytale", "Papa was a Rodeo", "I Shatter" (a very Philip-Glass/Kraftwerk-inspired love song), "I'm sorry I love you", "Acoustic Guitar", "Love is Like a Bottle of Gin", "Zebra"

Sadly, I've never been much of a Michael Jackson fan, so I fear this album is largely wasted on me. But it's hard to deny the reign of the undisputed King of Pop, and it's also hard to imagine that there are many of his albums other than Thriller as classic and complete as this one. I just wish he hadn't spent so much of his amazing career trying to sound and act like a manly man (on stage and in front of the camera, at least). But what an amazing performer and dancer!

Listening to this album makes me realize the only Simon & Garfunkel I've ever really listened to has been their hits (and everything from "Sounds of Silence" and "Bridge Over Troubled Water"), so it's really nice to hear something new (to me) and (occasionally) different from a great vocal duo. And a concept album to boot! (Well, side A, at least; "Voices of Old People" is a hoot)

I'm not sure how much new ground they covered in this album, musically or lyrically, but I enjoyed it. And now I know where the full-length version of "Mrs. Robinson" first appeared! (And to be honest, this album would have been a 3-star rating without "Mrs. Robinson")

What a creepy/weird album cover! Combined with unusual album title and the fact that I don't think I've ever heard anything by Deerhunter, I had no idea what to expect. Many of the songs sort of remind me of a weird mashup of Ween, Air, The Cure and a few other atmospheric bands, but with their own distinctive take, and I really enjoyed how the album has a kind of continuity among the songs that seems pretty rare in 21st-century albums.

It's always fun to get something out of left field from this collection, and even better to have enjoyed it rather than just being perplexed. I'd definitely be interested in hearing more from them. (4)

This kind of feels like the album that set the standard for generations of younger troubadours like Harry Connick Jr and Michael Buble. I've never been a huge Sinatra afficionado, and not really a huge fan of this kind of swing-style music, but it's hard to criticize the artist or album too much. A solid collection of pop standards.

What a great live album and recording! I know it's kind of a greatest hits album in some ways, but it's still a fun listen, and I'm really impressed at the quality of the live recording. (And thankful that his set even happened, given that the concert was more or less cancelled due to the previous day's violence and police response.)

Although I know Teenage Fanclub isn't quite as obscure as some of the other Scottish bands featured in this collection, it's kind of funny how many Scottish bands seem to show up in the rotation, and often without too much to distinguish them aside from their Scots-y-ness.

An OK album, but not all that distinctive, and a little hard to tell exactly what sound they're trying to achieve (although at times I was reminded of Dinosaur Jr).

I'm pretty sure I haven't heard any of Muse's music before except "Supermassive Black Hole", so this was a nice treat of a largely new (to me) band. And I enjoyed the album as an album, also a nice treat. (It also made me think of a long-ago independent comic-book/graphic-novel series, Grendel.)

With many of the songs, I was convinced that the lead singer must have had some connection to Radiohead, but then discovered that Matt Bellamy is not Thom Yorke (and not in any way related); they just seem to have a very similar tone and singing style. Fortunately, Muse as a whole doesn't really sound like Radiohead, which is nice. Also, I hadn't seen the video for "Supermassive Black Hole" before--what a trip!

I don't know if their other albums are like this one, but I enjoyed this more than I guessed I would.

An interesting choice for Elton John albums, given that it was neither a best seller nor seemingly all that popular when it was released (and didn't really seem to have a lasting legacy either). The first two songs I'd definitely heard before, and are great songs (to me at least), but I'm not familiar with the rest of the album, which seems to me to be variations on the first two songs. (Although I might have heard the title track before; I can't quite tell, but it's definitely more interesting than many of the other songs.)

It seems like a fine album, but it doesn't really stick for me. Sorry, Elton John!

Well, this definitely *wasn't* what I thought I'd listen to when I saw it was a Willie Nelson album. I like the concept, sort of, in principle, and Willie Nelson *does* do a good job giving the hoary classics his own touch, but the whole time I felt like I was listening to James Taylor (or maybe Jimmy Buffett) doing a Christmas album. I'm not as well-versed with Willie Nelson's music as I should be, but I'm pretty sure this isn't a great entree to his music, so hopefully there will be other albums of his in this collection...

Although I never really listened to them outside of radio plays, this is such a classic album, and I'm impressed at how many of the songs I already knew, and enjoyed. And while I get it that they grew tired of being compared to Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, it's pretty hard to avoid the comparison. I'm also really impressed to find out that all the songs were written by Gordon Gano when he was a high school senior (and even more impressive that only a few seem like they were written by a teenager).

I also had the chance to hear them play in 1994, and while the venue wasn't a great one for music (RFK Stadium in DC, part of a massive lineup called "HFSFest"), they put on a great show, and at one point a bunch of people were dancing to their songs in a weird conga line in a nosebleed section of the stadium. I'm pretty sure their setlist included mainly the songs from this album, which was fun.

I think the most interesting thing to me about this album is the name of the album and the connection to the island near Cape Cod, which sounds really cool. Not that there's anything wrong with the album, but it doesn't really speak to me. In some ways, it's a bit surprising that it debuted in 2009, as it feels like it could easily have been released 10 or even 20 years earlier.

I *do * like it that songs from the album appeared in a couple of films, one of which I've seen and would say the music fits the film nicely ("Blue Valentine"). I also like how layered some of the songs are, a bit like both Radiohead and Smashing Pumpkins (in different ways).

I was a little surprised that the second Jim Hendrix album was also his/their 2nd studio album, but now I realize that this collection contains *all* of Jimi Hendrix/Experience's studio albums, so not so surprising I suppose. A fun album, with more of a distinctive sound than just the great guitar playing on his/their first album, and it's fun to hear songs that got a fair amount of radio play-time in the years since. I do wish that songs like "Little Wing" were longer, though, as they seem *too* short to really develop as song. And I'm not sure I've ever heard "If 6 was 9" before, but I like it (and it's definitely long enough).

A shame that we're already 2/3s through his music in this collection--he really did have a unique sound and style.

For some (perhaps justified?) reason, I thought this collection avoided soundtracks, so this is a double-surprise, and not in a good way (one for being a soundtrack, the other for seeming out of left field music- and album-wise). In fact, I'm not at all sure I listened to the "official" album for today, as nearly every YouTube/YouTubeMusic entry seems to have different "songs" and titles, and in different orders, which is a lot more annoying thank intriguing, especially since there's not really any sort of explanation or translation of the lyrics.

I guess this would be a lot more interesting if I'd seen (or bothered to see) "Raiders of the Sacred Stone", I guess. Or was at all familiar with "the legendary music composer R. D. Burman" and his trajectory in Hindi music films. My two-star rating is more for how baffling this entry was in the collection than for the music itself (which seems both fine and definitely not to my taste).

Brian Eno *is* everywhere! I really enjoyed this album, especially considering when it was made and the technology of the time. You can hear aspects of this album in David Bryne's later solo work, as well as other bands, and I feel like the sampling is more sophisticated and true to the sources than a lot of later stuff by other bands and musicians. And I'm glad that while Eno described the album as a "vision of a psychedelic Africa," to me most of the songs didn't actually have that world-music vibe that I worried it might.

I can totally understand how edgy this album felt in 1981, as it sounds a lot more modern (and interesting) than a lot of stuff coming out at the same time. And while I couldn't find an online copy of the short film/video "America is Waiting" by Bruce Conner, the short/video for "Mea Cullpa" is easier to find and worth watching for an added visual experience to that song. ("Mea Culpa"'s animation made me think of the end credits experimental films in the "Babylon Berlin" TV series, although I'm pretty sure those were from the 1920s and 1930s.)

It's hard to turn down a Dolly Parton album, even one with a truly creepy cover like this one. (And now that I find out that it's a painting based on a school photo taken the day she wore the titular coat of many colors, I feel badly feeling creeped out by the album cover. Even worse, it sounds like she was treated much worse by her schoolmates than in the song: "the other children stripped the coat off of her and locked her, half naked and screaming, in a dark coat closet. She says this is why she always sleeps with a light on now." Yikes.)

I've never been a huge fan of this kind of classic country music, but it's hard to deny that this has a lot of really strong songs, most of them written by Dolly Parton, and great lyrical stories. (And an interesting crossover-sounding song in "Here I Am".) Thanks, Dolly!

Well, this album certainly comes out of the gates roaring! Totally reminds me of Rammstein's music, albeit from long before Rammstein came on the scene. I actually had no idea there was this kind of industrial music in the 1980s, frankly, so I'm very impressed, and enjoyed most of the songs as a result, even without understanding *any* of the German lyrics (much like Rammstein). And I also like it that a Ministry band member says this album is in his top ten essential industrial albums.

Reading more about the album and the band made me enjoy the album and their music even more, if "enjoy" is really the appropriate term. They did an amazing job transforming Queen's "One Vision" into "Geburt einer Nation" (Birth of a Nation), and made it *way* more sinister and depressing along the way; and the same for their adaptation of Opus' "Live is Life" as both songs album, "Opus Dei" and "Leben heißt Leben". It totally makes me want to listen to their Beatles and Rolling Stones cover albums.

I'll admit that, as much as I enjoyed/appreciated this album and the discovery of this band, I can't imagine spending time with the band members, especially if they really don't break "character" often, as that's just way too much...fraughtness (and guilt). And the Wikpedia entry for the band has what seems like a very insightful quote about them by a Slovenian philosopher that ends with a pretty good summary: "You will not learn a lot from Laibach about North Korea. You will learn a lot about our own anxieties and hypocrisies."