Reviews by mitch058

I know Rush isn't many (most?) people's favorites, but if we're talking about a band's great albums, it's hard to ignore 2112, or at least Side A. I first listened to this somewhere around 6th-8th grade, and it never occurred to me that this was corny or might be somewhat painful to listen to decades later (besides, I was and am a big sci-fi fan). And as much as the other side of this record has pretty much *nothing* to do with the 2112 story, I've always enjoyed those songs too. Music-wise, I think I'd rank "Permanent Waves" and "Moving Pictures" as my favorite Rush albums, but it's fun to re-listen to Rush's more prog-rock-oriented stuff too (and cringe at some of those photos from that era). A solid 4!

(And for those who can't really enjoy (too) much of Rush, just remember Dave Grohl's great homage to Neil Peart after his untimely death: "I still vividly remember my first listen of 2112 when I was young. It was the first time I really listened to a drummer. And since that day, music has never been the same. His power, precision, and composition was incomparable. He was called ‘The Professor’ for a reason: We all learned from him.")

I've never been able to really get into any band's prog-rock phase (and some bands never had any other phase, I know), so it's hard for me to enjoy this album as much as I should/could. That said, I enjoy Yes' prog-rock sound about as much as (maybe more than?) Genesis or ELP. This album is kind of a weird one, though, with the way it only had half of the songs as true band collaborations, so it's hard to call it much of a complete album (I did like the story behind "5 percent of nothing", though). I'm not sure it's fair to rank it a 2, but my 3-star rating seems a bit generous, I'll admit.

A nice collection of mainly familiar early Beatles songs, and a surprisingly quick listen. It makes me a bit interested in finding out more about the movie. A solid 3, given that the Beatles have much better albums.

Listening to this album makes me think of when I was interning with the Minnesota Historical Society (probably summer 1999?) while the exhibits team was developing an exhibit "Sounds Good to Me: Music in Minnesota", and while Fiona Apple has nothing to do with Minnesota (as far as I know), one of my projects was to create a sort of mix tape that would play constantly in a high school-style locker with headphones for visitors to listen in on. I'm nearly certain that one of the songs was "Criminal", and I enjoyed hearing it as I worked on the tape (which was DAT, naturally), which also had songs by other Lillith Fair luminaries, plus I'm sure some other equally forgettable pop/alt music.

That said, I enjoyed listening to this album, and I'd probably listen to another Fiona Apple album some day (the current favs seem to be "Fetch the Bolt Cutters" (2020) or "When the Pawn..." (1999)). Once again, though, since none of the fans out there consider this her best album, I wonder why this project seems to favor debut albums so much? (But maybe I should stop wondering this and just accept it...)

I'm impressed some of us have now gotten *two* Roxy Music albums! It's hard not compare this self-titled album to "For Your Pleasure", and I feel like the comparison leaves their earlier album a bit wanting (in part because the production quality is a bit uneven, but mainly because it feels like they were just starting to get a feel for their style/sound). But, still, Brian Eno is everywhere!

Quite the jam album! I'm not as familiar with the Allman Brothers Band as I'd like to be, but I imagine that was a great show. I kind of expected more lyrics/singing, but then, what do I know?

Very reminiscent of De La Soul to me, even though they had pretty different sounds in some ways. I enjoyed this album, but was hoping for a bit more variety tune/rhythm-wise (it got a bit more varied in the later tracks, though). Once again, I kind of wonder if this is the best album to showcase Tribe.... (I never listened to them back in the days, aside from whatever might have been on the radio.) A solid 4, I'd say.

Doesn't seem like their best work, I'm afraid, although a few good songs here and there. I would hope that there's another White Stripes album in this collection, but I suspect there isn't, and that's a shame, as this isn't the album I'd choose to represent them. A bit too nasally (even for Jack White) and monochromatic to earn more than 3 stars, sadly.

A classic, of course! It was interesting to get additional songs on the remastered (reissued?) album version that I eventually found via YouTube (the YouTube Music album link was broken), but I'm not sure whether the extra songs should count in this project (but nice to hear them nonetheless).