Reviews by mitch058

What an interesting choice and a fun change of pace. (I also love it that YouTube Music decided to play all of its (many many) ads in Spanish--I'm curious to see if this language preference sticks to the next listen, since I'm not logged in...)

I'm not at all a connoisseur of Cuban music, so I can't comment on whether they've done a good job of reviving trova and filin, but I enjoyed listening to the album. I think my favorite song was "El Carretero". (I suspect it's just me (and a very gringo me), but "El Cuarto de Tuya" totally reminded me of Los Lobos' version of "I wanna be like you (Monkey Song)", although "El Cuarto" has *much* more adult lyrics (apparently).)

My only quibble with this selection is that this is clearly a superband/all-star/semi-one-off band/album, which I thought were generally not included in the 1001 albums project? (Maybe it's only soundtracks and compilation albums, though?)

I'd always meant to listen to this album, given how wide-ranging David Bowie has been over his music career, so I'm glad to have an excuse to listen to it. It's interesting enough, I suppose, but I wonder if this is really even one of his better albums? (It appears that music critics would beg to differ with me on that point, so I guess I'll just have to accept its greatness.)

It *is* interesting to (literally) see how much music videos are an integral part of a few of the songs on this album, and "Blackstar" (the song) seems like a weird compendium of his style and sound over the decades (sort of). I think I enjoyed "Lazarus" the most. But overall it didn't really engage me. And sad knowing this was his last album, as he clearly had plenty more to contribute into the 21st century.

A fun album, and the recording captures their live performance really well (which is always impressive, but particularly for a 1963 recording). I really like the energy of Sam Cooke and the band, but I'll admit there's not as much variety among the songs as I'd like, despite different lyrics and sensibilities among the songs. Maybe that's a casualty of the live recording? What a shame that RCA prevented this from being distributed for nearly 20 years!

I find it hard to get past Nico's voice, unfortunately, so it's hard to appreciate and/or enjoy this as much as I probably should. That aside, this seems a lot more saccharine than the Velvet Underground/Nico collaboration (despite a bunch of Velvet Underground participation in the album), so maybe it's not just her voice that's putting me off this album. The songs *do* get better as the album goes along, particularly those with more Velvet Underground participation and songwriting (I think I enjoyed "It Was a Pleasure Then" the most), but it's still a pretty challenging album to listen to.

To be fair to her, the Wikipedia entry makes it pretty clear the flute/string additions were not only *not* her choice, but ruined it for her too (along with the absence of drums or bass). Sorry, Nico--you got robbed! And us too. It seems a shame to include this in the greatest albums collection, given how she was treated and how different this was from what she'd hoped for. A testament to how dictatorial producers and studios were back then. :(

It almost felt like cheating to listen to this album (for what must be the umpteenth time). Despite my undying fandom, I've never read any liner notes or anything about this album, so I was surprised to read that Roy Harper was responsible for the lead vocals on "Have a Cigar" (although since I never quite could reconcile Roger Waters' voice to that song, I guess I just implicitly assumed it was another band member singing it?).

I think what's always stuck with me most with this album is David Gilmour's distinctive guitar style, which feels as perfected on this album as it could probably be. I'm sorry that contemporary critics didn't feel all that enthusiastic about this album, but I have the feeling that the (to me, at least) unique sound and composition of the album must have seemed out of left field, even for Pink Floyd.

When I was a kid, I would play my favorite records continuously while reading books. As a result, It's almost impossible for me to separate "Wish you were here" from a couple of fantasy book series, mainly "The Once and Future King" series (T.H. White), and I think also the "Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" series (Stephen Donaldson). Probably not what Waters and crew had in mind, I know....

I actually own a different (and much later) Bjork album, and I'm impressed at how distinctive and consistent her style and sound has been, as well as those *wild* outfits. I always feel like she took The Sugarcubes to her logical conclusion, and then just started an infinite number of variations of that theme. For me, her sound has always been a bit more background music than I'm sure she'd prefer, but I *will* say that the few videos I've seen of some of her more recent songs are amazing productions in themselves. With this album, though, there weren't too many songs that really hooked me, and a few that I found pretty grating ("Like Someone in Love" an exemplar).

Listening to this album finally helped me realize that I'm not really that much of a fan of punk--I mean, if I can't love *this* album, then there's not much hope for me, sadly. (Further irony is that this is a much more produced and mastered album than most punk albums (and I guess their only studio album), and yet they also did a fantastic job sounding like these were near-live one-take cuts.)

Reading the Wikipedia entry for this album is a fun experience; I'm sure there are even longer and more minutely detailed entries on the site, but I feel like the "Bollocks" entry is what Wikipedia was made for. I particularly liked the anecdotes about Sid Vicious' and Johnny Rotten's interactions with Queen in the studio, and I was (perhaps foolishly) surprised to learn that Sid Vicious was an atrocious bass player.

Regardless of my own personal reaction to it, it's pretty undeniable that this album was an instant and massive touchstone for music fans and bands alike.

I imagine this was a fun album for 'Til Tuesday fans when it came out, and it seems like a solid album, although I don't have any real familiarity with 'Til Tuesday or Aimee Mann. It's kind of like a completely different version of Bob Mould going solo after Husker Du, I guess?

It's a tight and poppy album, I suppose, but nothing very exciting to me, since I didn't have any history with her.

Since I hadn't first listened to this album until fairly recently, it's hard to imagine how this was a bit of a flop, both critically and commercially, given how influential the band and this album became. (The Brian Eno quote in the Wikipedia entry is hilarious, and probably not as exaggerated as it seems.) (Brian Eno is everywhere!)

I suspect we'll get other Velvet Underground albums eventually in the 1001-albums collection, since this one doesn't have too many radio-friendly tunes, but I'm glad to have this as the first Velvet Underground/Lou Reed selection. I'll admit, though, that I find this a weird album to listen to, as it's all over the place and seems uneven song- and music-wise, especially with Nico's singing/style often seeming to clash with the Velvet Undergound's sound and style. And that's probably one of the points, I'm sure. I can only imagine how weird and jarring Warhol's "Exploding Plastic Inevitable" tour must have been...

I'm guessing this is likely to be our only Steely Dan album, which is great, although I do wish we'd gotten whatever album has Boddhisatva on it (but I appreciated the few radio songs that were on this album too). I've always enjoyed listening to Steely Dan, but I also feel like one album is more than enough to give us a sense of the style and flavor; his music is largely interchangeable, so getting another selection later on would be a bit disappointing. I'm glad we got this though!

Well, this was *not* what I was expecting when I saw that the selection was ELP (which I confusedly thought was yet another Yes album, since Bruford/Wakeman/Howe is more less the same words as Emerson/Lake/Palmer in my mind). I'm guessing there will be more ELP in our future, as this sort of gimmicky album can't possibly be their only album to make the list, right?

I'm sure this is a very creative take on Modest Mussorgsky's composition, but it's fallen on deaf ears, sadly. Kudos to them, though, for adding a few new "pictures" all of their own to the exhibition ("The Sage," "Blues Variation" and "The Curse of Baba Yaga," I think, plus of course the excruciating "Nutrocker" encore), and for Emerson dragging a Hammond organ across the stage to get feedback. The whole thing reminded me a bit of the more noodly aspects of Jethro Tull's music, plus (oddly) some sort of bastardized prog-rock version of Sting's truly impossible-to-enjoy "Songs of the Labyrinth" (which came out much much later, I know).

I wish I could say I enjoyed this, or even appreciated it beyond a very abstract respect for a full album-length adaptation of a classical suite, but this didn't really resonate with me (beyond the Promenade theme becoming an annoying ear-worm). A rare 2-ranking for me. :(

I haven't listened to all that much of Nina Simone's music beyond the few staples, and all of the sampled music that relies heavily on her voice and style, so it's really nice to get a full album of hers that shows more range than I've previously heard. It *is* weird that this album appears to have been cobbled together from session recordings for other albums, but since the album seems to have gotten a lot of traction both at the time and later on as one her finest, I'm glad to have this as the selection for her music.

Her voice is so distinctive that it's often hard for me to hear several songs by her without them all blending together, but "Four Women" stood out for me (partly because of it's semi-censored status), as did "Break Down and Let it all Out". I was also happy to discover that the really spare style of songs like "Lilac Wine" and this album's version of the iconic "Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair" isn't her only style (although it's clearly a preferred one).

I think I've heard of Simply Red before, and certainly have heard their big hits, "Holding Back the Years" and the cover of "Money's Too Tight (to Mention)", but I doubt I knew those were by Simply Red, and I also seriously doubt I've ever heard the rest of the album. I also really enjoyed the experience of listening to and watching the album through the CD+G Museum's decoding of the enhanced CD, in all its 4-bit glory (and lots of trivia and factoids alongside great pixellated photos and not-so-great pixellated graphics).

I'm sort of surprised to find out this won the Grammy for best new artist, as it wasn't a particularly compelling album to me. But certainly enjoyable, and I would never have guessed they were British, which speaks to their tight sound and a well-produced soul-inspired album.

Although I didn't really know what Jimmy Smith sounded like, or what this album might be like, I really enjoyed it (despite not even knowing that there was a term for a jazz organist). I *had* expected some lyrics and singing, but it's a fun instrumental album, and I'm sure the lack of a song structure allowed them to have those nice long tracks, with every musician getting a chance to show their chops. I'm also shocked at how many albums The Incredible Jimmy Smith churned out in his career, but will have to just trust the book's authors/editors that this is his greatest accomplishment.

I was really excited to hear this album given all the big names as guest artists, but I found it hard to get past Anohni's voice and style, I think, sadly. Even though it sounds quite a bit different, I was reminded of that Moby album that incorporated vintage recordings, which was an interesting idea but ended up flattening out everything. I can see why this album got dropped in later editions of the 1001 Albums project.

Well, based on the album cover alone, I can safely say this is nothing like Slade or MIA or Amy Winehouse (or the Temptations, for that matter). A bit more like Yes, I guess, but not really my kind of thing overall. I like the album title, but I'm not sure exactly how the songs relate to the title, and I certainly can't say I have any impression of who Dr. Sardonicus might be...except he must be some crazy nature-loving, zoo-hating, skin-fetishistic space child who sometimes touches the worm!

A nice change of pace from what we've been getting recently! Some of the songs I've definitely heard before, but others are new to me, which is always nice; some of the songs, though, didn't do much for me (looking at you, "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"). I don't really think of the Temptations as being particularly political (which may be more ignorance on my part than reality), but "Run, Charlie, Run" was a great contradiction to that impression--made me think of something like Parliament's "Chocolate City". And nice to have a pure Temptations album! Could have been a 3 for somewhat uneven song choices, but I enjoy their sound more than a 3....

I haven't (actively) listened to Waylon Jennings all that much, so I'm not sure how this compares to other albums by him, but the backstory of how most of the songs were written by Billy Joe Shaver is pretty interesting. I'll also freely admit that I had no idea what the "outlaw sub-genre in country music" was or what it sounds like (until I let Wikipedia educate me), but it's fascinating that getting to choose your producers and musicians made you an outlaw at one point.

This seems like a nice enough album, albeit without a whole lot of memorable/distinctive songs (I think my favorite was probably "Black Rose"). The start of "Honky Tonk Heroes" (the song) reminded me a lot of Jerry Jeff Walker's "Wheel", and other songs had elements of Johnny Cash and even Elvis to them. A solid 3 (largely because I'm ignorant of its context).

I haven't heard that many songs from Amy Winehouse (and I don't think any of them featured on this album), so this is a nice expansion in my Winehouse-literacy. I like her sound, and I can only hope that when she was recording and performing all of the other issues in her life took a back seat, because she seems like she was a great performer and artist. A solid 4!

Hm...I'll admit that I have perhaps never knowingly heard Slade before this. The first few tracks makes me wonder if they were influential on later bands, as there's a sort of AC/DC vibe to something like "How D'You Ride?" and a general southern rock vibe to some of their songs, plus plenty of echoes from later mediocre glam bands like Quiet Riot and Twisted Slayer.

But I guess it doesn't seem all that distinctive or memorable, and the quality of the lyrics *really* leaves something to be desired (along with the embarrassing song titles); it probably says more about the "Classic Rock" magazine/site than the band that it considers this album an "essential classic." It also didn't sound horrible, thankfully, and I won't hold it against them that the YouTube Music link provided extra (painful) songs that weren't on the original release. (Hence the wishy-washy 3 stars.)

I *did* think it was funny that the album cover screamed to me that this was a British (English) band, despite almost none of them showing their teeth. And one guess which of them is the drummer, right?