Reviews by mkaddour2001

David Crosby, I've come to learn from this list, seems to be a very well-respected and renowned figure in this era of folk rock, be it through The Byrds or his various collaborations with other folk-rock artists like Nash and Neil Young. So I was expecting a lot out of this album, and I wasn't really disappointed - I don't think so at least. It doesn't stick out as much as I'd like it to (unlike, say, his fellow Byrds member Gene Clark's album 'No Other'), but the performances here were clean, impassioned, and very layered. It's the type of serene, intangible, trance-inducing psychadelic music that defined this sound. 'Traction in the Rain' may be my favorite thing here, with a backing instrumental that's almost ambient in nature, with these subtly shifting chords. But then you get a long, rough, gritty, gut-punch like the early-record banger that is 'Cowboy Movie' that almost leans into a blues-rock Hendrix-esque jam and groove-based sound. The aptly named 'Song with No Words' is another perfect coast-tune, with music to soundtrack what I assume were days filled with pot smoking on the grass. Just the way the piano, bass, and guitar mesh so well with one another, it's so good.

Again, it's far from the most interesting thing this genre has to offer, but I enjoyed how consistent it all was. I respect a record that understands what it's best at and sticks to refining that one thing, instead of opting to go in a million different directions that are nowhere near as fleshed out. I respect this record for sticking to the basics, in a time when it seemed like sounds were beginning to shift away from all this psychadelic stuff and into a darker, and more hard-rock driven one.

Another one of those wacky late '60s/early '70s American psych-rock albums that this list seems to love throwing at me. While the music on these records tends to lean into weirder directions, I feel like I've heard from enough of Spirit's contemporaries to say that I didn't find much here that was unique or even all that interesting. This album, in particular, didn't really strike the balance between enjoyable and experimental that I'm usually looking for with these albums. Instead, songs just sort of stutter along, with no discernible structure or direction. I did still really enjoy many songs in the second half, especially 'When I Touch You', 'Soldier', and 'Morning Will Come'. But this is definitely a sound I'm starting to get a bit tired of.

A very chill record by, what I assume, is a pretty big name in '90s neo-soul. At least I think so - the name Maxwell is super familiar, but I can't say I was familiar with his stuff before this. He doesn't really stand out in any way vocally, I find, just a dude that's really good at what he does. He has a very nice falsetto, though - really shining through on the immensely smooth '...Till the Cops Come Knockin'''. The basslines here are tight and funky, the synths are prestigious and glittery, and the percussion is light, tight, and slick and the songs are laced with many little embellishments, keeping things interesting. So your typical solid Neo Soul record with some memorable songs here and there, like 'Sumthin' Sumthin'' and especially 'Ascension'. But the whole thing I find starts to feel a bit samey as it hits the 40-minute mark, or after the pretty enjoyable guitar ballad, 'Whenever Wherever Whatever'. It's honestly far too long for its own good. I'm sure I'd enjoy digesting this whole thing in one go in some background context, but as a dedicated listen, it was sort of fatiguing. Which sucks because there really wasn't a subpar moment here; it all sounds so good, but it's just a bit too much for me on first listen. Still great overall and a record I see myself revisiting in the future.

I love this album; it's so beautiful and subtly haunting, yet simultaneously cozy and comforting. But I guess it's comforting in the same way that being stranded in a small, warm cabin in a raging blizzard is comforting. There's nothing really comfortable about that situation, aside from the way you'd feel in the present moment. I feel the same way listening to this album; it's more sheltering in that way - I mean, listen to the lyrics of the title track, it's honestly kinda depressing I find. Either way, many of the songs here I've been revisiting for years. 'Like Dylan In The Movies' has maybe my favorite introduction on the album - such a slick bass and drum groove with some light acoustic strumming that still holds that subtlety and softness that's a staple in B&S' music. 'The Fox In The Snow' has maybe the most gorgeous outro on the entire record - I love that little moment in the end with the back-and-forth vocals and what I can never tell is a string or a horn. All the instrumentals and playing on this album are top-notch - I'd say it rivals albums like 'The Queen Is Dead' in just how varied and colourfully produced and arranged it all is, without ever feeling overwhelming. My favorite song, which has always resonated with me the most, is 'Me And The Major'. Maybe I'm a bit too old to relate to it now, but it's a pretty on-the-nose song with lyrics that still ring true generations later. It's also ridiculously catchy and the most upbeat thing here. 'Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying' also stuck with me back when I first heard this - a song that seems to be about someone talking, or singing, about life from his unfiltered point of view - in a way, the protagonist is sick of the way reality around him is plastered in so much false optimism.

Every song on this album kicks ass, such a uniquely colorful album, with some of the greatest writing you can find in a '90s folk rock album. Phenomenal.

Probably the most I've enjoyed Led Zeppelin on this list so far, a solid crop of songs, but still, not an album that I see myself re-visiting. But honestly, this was the most expressive and enjoyable I've found Plant to be (especially on 'Babe I'm Gonna Love You'), a vocalist I can seldom stand. As usual, though, he's still the worst part of this band's music, and his repetitive, derivative, and directionless riffing on songs like 'I Can't Quite You Baby' bog down these otherwise solid jammy songs. Overall, the album is considerably heavier and grittier than some of their other albums in the self-titled series; the riffs are dirtier and catchier, that's for sure - listen to 'Dazed and Confused', 'How Many More Times', and 'Communication Breakdown'. And yes, I know these guys stole a good chunk of their riffs, but assuming they didn't, the ones here are some of their absolute best.

I mean, you still get your occasional snoozer ('Your Time Is Gonna Come'), but for a band that I don't really care for, this was pretty enjoyable.

Pretty good, definitely one of those '60s albums that tries to blend the whole later part of the decade's various sounds into one sorta mess of an album. Be it the country-rock leanings of 'A Child's Claim to Fame' that sounds right out of a Byrds album, the grandiose balladry of a song like 'Expecting to Fly', the addictive and blood-pumping psychological jamming of 'Bludebird', the upbeat white-boy horn-driven funk of 'Good Time Boy', or the closing Beatle-esque medley 'Broken Arrow'. They're a lot like a band like the Kinks in this way, but what Buffalo Springfield chose to do with all these genres I found was far less interesting and certainly more tame.

Still, there are some great songs here; I really enjoyed the haunting strings of 'Expecting to Fly' alongside its gorgeous chorus - easily my favorite song here. I also pretty much enjoyed every part of that closing medley, 'Broken Arrow'.

The name Sheryl Crow certainly rings a bell, but I don't think I've heard her music before this. And honestly, for as much as this is a hodge-podge of your standard '90s pop tropes, it was pretty much enjoyable all the way through. 'Leaving Las Vegas' really hooked me in early on. There's just something about that chorus that throws me back to a time when I wasn't even born yet. And songs like 'Solidify' and 'The Na-Na Song' are just good, goofy fun that don't detract from the rest of the experience. The latter I liked especially, it being your standard pop-song mockery track, despite this album being a, you know, standard '90s pop-rock record all the same. That's not to say Sheryl Crow is overly generic in this field, because that's definitely not the case. For one, I find her writing to be more compelling than many of her contemporaries - especially on songs like 'No One Said It Would Be Easy', 'Strong Enough', and especially the epic and almost haunting 'We Do What We Can'. She also has a knack for interesting production, like with that slow trudging, reverberating bass on 'No One Said It Would Be Easy' or with the steel-pedal surfing on that fun bassline of 'All I Wanna Do'. Her voice is also really solid, she has this Fiona Apple type rasp and slickness (to make a comparison that will probably piss many off, but like come on, just listen to 'All I Wanna Do' - am I crazy?).

So yeah, a super enjoyable record for me, honestly. Type of album where I see myself returning to many of the songs here.

Genuinely think that The Kinks are one of the coolest and most original '60s bands there was, and definitely not just the band that made 'You Really Got Me' (MY original misconception). In a way, their very diverse and, at times, scattered albums sound like a more extreme version of their pop-rock contemporaries, The Beatles, and dare I say, Ween before Ween. There's a theatrical, comedic, and snarky edge to the songs here, even a song like 'Some Mother's Son' that tackles quite a dark topic can't help but sound almost overly sentimental, purposefully so. The bangers are still here, though - for one, 'Victoria' is a genuinely incredible opener with one of the more earwormy choruses here. And I don't know what it is about 'Australia', but I swear to god the smoky vocals on that song sound like Alex Turner - and the shimmering arpeggios of that song are generally pretty ahead of their time. It also has this infectiously jammy outro after a very standard, yet earwormy, poppy progression early on. Oh, yeah, and I guess there's a concept here; apparently, this was soundtracking some play. The story wasn't very obvious to me, but then again, I don't think that was the point. It's moreso just a large clump of songs with some thematic constants.'Shangri-La' stuck with me quite a bit from the lyrical side, it seems to be describing someone that's so cozy in their comfort zone, to an almost imprisoning degree.

A really fun listen, just like everything else I've heard from these guys up until now. They haven't missed.

I might still be a bigger fan of 'Acoustic Ballad' Elliot when compared to his later-career, more lavishly produced indie-rock stuff. Not to say the stuff here wasn't great, because it was, but I still found my favorite songs here to be the slower and more ballad-leaning ones. 'Somebody That I Used To Know' has the hypnotic finger-picking intro of a song like 'Angeles', my favorite Smith song, and it also has one of the more winning choruses here. The piano ballad 'Everything Means Nothing To Me' is Elliot being incredibly predictive of my guy Sufjan, more so than usual. It's also one of the few songs where the more busy production suits the whole thing quite well, especially when those echoey strings flutter into the second half. Come to think of it, there are quite a few cool little one-off outros here, 'Happiness/The Gondola Man' and 'The Roost' especially. It's a small detail, but I love it when albums do that.

Lyrically, it's really everything I'd expect out of Elliot; many of the songs detail a failed relationship, the failures of both Elliot as well as his partner, and the toll it took and continues to take on him. It comes off as bitter on the surface, especially with songs like 'Stupidity Tries' and 'Easy Way Out', but under the surface, this is clearly more than your average break-up album; there's a lot of emotional baggage to unpack here. I'd say rays of optimism still shine through the cracks on a song like 'Happiness/The Gondola Man', but even with this song, I sort of get the vibe that the protagonist is overcome with regret due to the failed relationship, be it with how it unraveled or how it ultimately ended. And the inability to move on due to such a dissatisfying end is also seen on another one of my favorite acoustic ballads here, 'Better Be Quiet Now'.

It's certainly an Elliot Smith album, despite it not really falling under that cozy, acoustic, sad-man-with-his-guitar umbrella the guy's known for. It's still mostly that, but maybe a little less cozy, a bit more indie-rock, but just as sad all the same.

I mean, DC's very own Minor Threat have always been one of my favorite hardcore bands, rivaled only by groups like the Dead Kennedys and Bad Brains. But I've always been a bigger fan of their first two 7-Inches as opposed to this sole LP in their discography. Those are two genuine masterpieces in the world of young, rebellious, noisy, and fast punk music. This album, on the other hand, always felt a bit more polished - the guitar playing a bit more flashy and predictive of later post-hardcore bands like Fugazi. It still has that youthful ferocity though, especially in MacKaye's vocals, it sounds like a bridge between the earlier Minor Threat releases, and the more melodic and emotional nature his proto-emocore band, Embrace, would go in. He's clearly already getting sick of the meathead-ridden and ultra-masculine direction the scene he helped prop up was going in. Ian's pissed here, and it's awesome. While I don't enjoy this as much as those first Minor Threat EPs, this whole thing is still ruthlessly kickass. I love the squealing scratchiness of the guitar in the second half of the opener 'Betray', and that bass break on 'Think Again' is so crunchy (a comment that applies to most of the bass playing here). The riff on 'Look Back & Laugh' sounds right out of the late '70s DK playbook. And the title track (re-interpreted from their 'In My Eyes' EP) is quite literally just 'Straight Edge' part 2, in the best way possible. The closer here is one of my favorite Minor Threat songs; it's easily the funniest and most on-the-nose thing here. It's also just stupidly catchy.

I mean, it's this genre at its source and its prime. There is absolutely nothing to hate here - you don't get 20-minute albums this rad every day.

Really gorgeous Hindi music, the stuff that makes you realize that the sounds we associate so heavily with ambient nowadays were treaded much earlier than the mid '70s in eastern music (and jazz music honestly). That's as clear as day on this album, and just a few minutes into the first movement. It's really the reverb nature of the Santoor that amplifies that effect - it's one of those hauntingly gorgeous eastern instruments that just naturally are very lush, not unlike the Gamelan. And honestly, it manages to sound even better when paired with the very loose guitar playing here. Ambient pieces aside, you still get these more traditional drum-driven grooves throughout this album, which are great, especially when that tabla goes absolutely nuts in the final minutes of that first movement. I think I ended up enjoying the groovier moments here overall.

While I did admittedly let this hang in the background for most of its duration while I was running some errands, I did still enjoy it quite a bit, if not more than I would've otherwise, in that context.

Been a pretty big fan of every Queen album on this list so far. But I'll admit that enjoying Queen's singles and enjoying their albums are two very different sports. Their albums tend to be more linear in their progression, wildly more experimental, hard-rock leaning, and sort of messy. I mean, you still get a song like 'Bohemian Rhapsody' that is pretty much all those things, but a song like 'Killer Queen' off this album sticks out in just how directly catchy it is, unlike pretty much anything else here. With all that said, this was unfortunately one of my lesser favorite Queen albums...it's just far too all-over-the-place for my liking. There are still some highlights, like 'Bring Back That Leroy Brown' and the gorgeous little ballad that is 'Lily Of The Valley', which sounds a lot like early King Crimson. The riff on 'Stone Cold Crazy' is also one of the nuttiest things here. I also enjoyed the closing ballad 'In The Lap Of The Gods...Revisited' which has some killer group vocals. And obviously, there's 'Killer Queen', super catchy and one of my all-time favorite Queen songs - those harmonies on the chorus rock. So there were individual highlights here, but as a whole, this was a difficult album to digest - it just goes in a million different directions. Maybe I'll enjoy it more on future listens.

Kate Bush rules, but honestly, I haven't looked into much of her music outside of 'Hounds of Love' and her debut 'Wuthering Heights' - both of which have songs that I revisit more than frequently. This was one of her more acclaimed albums, so I was excited to get into it - despite the first track scaring me a bit. To me, this album shares the same British wit, charm, and forward-thinking avant-garde leanings as many of Eno's earlier works, especially 'Taking Tiger Mountain by Storm'. Like Eno on those albums, Bush is just so fun to listen to, and the music manages to (somehow) match the whimsy she exudes on just about every track here. It's a surreal combination; there's just something about Bush reaching into those upper registers in songs like 'Suspended In Gaffa' and 'There Goes A Tenner' that scratches an itch that very few other vocalists do. Not to mention her weird inflections on songs like 'Leave It Open', which I just don't understand, but love all the same. She's certainly expressive as well, I love how her voice cracks with the "I Love Life" cries of 'Pull Out The Pin', a song that seems to depict some war-placed moral dilemma. That emotional expressiveness can also be seen with the closer, 'Get Out Of My House', which, despite the emotional turmoil driving the whole thing, has one of the more catchy refrains here (minus the donkey noises) - it's a fantastic closer that goes in so many captivating directions. And honestly, for as weird and experimental as this album is, it still manages to be pretty catchy at various moments throughout - especially that chorus in 'Suspended In Gaffa' or the one in 'Houdini'. And I have to mention the incredible 'Night Of The Swallow', another tragic song that has one of the greatest outros I've heard in a while with those pipes and theatrical vocal arrangements. And I feel Bush understood just how good this part was since it goes on for just about 2 minutes. So epic. The title track I also really loved, it's super atmospheric and employs a didgeridoo perfectly fitting the theme of the song, which seems to tackle indigenous struggle in Australia.

What an incredible listen. I actually held off writing this review until after a few listens, and I think that was the right move; this thing really grows on you with every play. But honestly, I also loved it after my first listen. There is something really special about this album that I latched onto very early on.

There isn't much that I can say about this album that I haven't already said about Cash's 'At San Quentin', but I guess this is the OG after all, and it has the better crop of songs in my opinion. I mean, this rendition of his 'Folsom Prison Blues' track is my favorite Johnny Cash song of all time, just the way the crowd roars when Cash mentions he shot a man in Reno gets me every time. The provocative nature of this album is really the standout here; there's something so satisfying about the start-stops of a song like 'Cocaine Blues'. 'The Wall, ' I feel similarly about, but the crowd's reaction is far more reserved here, and rightfully so, given its darker nature. Other highlights here are 'I Still Miss Someone' and 'Send a Picture of Mother', a song that I'm sure tugged at the heartstrings of every single inmate at that show.

Cash's interjections and random one-liners are as funny as ever, and the recording of this thing still sounds crisp. And his duets with June Carter are a much-needed change of pace late in the performance. I love her growling presence on 'Jackson'. This thing rules, really enjoyed it much more than I remembered on this most recent listen.

Millions have said it already, but I'll say it now also: this is the greatest pop album of all time. The genius of one man, Brian Wilson, on full display - taking the very best of his contemporaries from the perky song topics and structures of The Beatles' 'Rubber Soul' to the emerging "Wall of Sound" aesthetic of producer (and piece of shit) Phil Spector, most famously with The Ronettes 'Be My Baby'. But enough of the redundant history lesson; everyone's already familiar with it. I just really wanted to convey that this album is very much of its time. For as much as people praise this thing as being "Ahead of its time", which I still agree with 100%, I'd say a lot of its charm lies in its age. There's a very fine layer of dust sitting on this thing - it's what makes the album what it is.

Pet Sounds is an album that jumps between emotions at an almost dizzying pace - playful, dreary, confused, alive, and, quite often, longing. It's a very sporadic album emotionally, which is something not many people talk about - you go from the upbeat harmonies of the love song that is the iconic 'Wouldn't It Be Nice' and then, right after, you enter the depths of 'You Still Believe In Me' which has one of the most hauntingly melancholic outros in any pop song with the echoes of the wails of "I want to Cry" fading out with the rest of song. 'Don't Talk' is equally as dreary, but its lyrics paint something more comfortable, with the overthinking of 'You Still Believe in Me' being thrown completely out the window as the narrator sways with this comfortable ballad alongside their lover in a moment of serenity where literally nothing else matters. I initially didn't even love this song, because it's missing those Beach Boys harmonies, which I'm a huge fan of, but in recent years it's become one of my favorites. The following tracks are more upbeat, picking up the pace after those past few lulling tracks. Nothing puts a smile on my face like those pummeling, crushing drums and those cheesy, but oh so delicious harmonies on 'I'm Waiting For the Day'. And 'Sloop John B', while not only being the funniest track on here, also has my favorite harmony arrangement on the whole album, especially when that second go of the chorus hits. And then we get the marvel that is 'God Only Knows', maybe the most perfect song ever. I love the majestic horns that introduce the whole thing and the way the bass crunches alongside the snappy percussion in the verses. Carl Wilson's on vocals here, and the conviction in his voice as he lays down these simple and almost haunting love rhymes immediately ropes you in as the sound swells and grows around him. And the interludes, they're otherworldly - just in the way the voices of the other band members come in, one at a time, building alongside the music for one last grand finale. This is the type of song where you smile throughout the whole thing, shed a single tear in its final moments, and then feel utterly void when it's all over as you're shot back into the real world.

And honestly, after the unreachable high of 'God Only Knows', the band still comes through with non-stop back-to-back bangers. 'I Know There's An Answer' may have those sort of dorky '60s horns, but the key arrangement here is honestly much more complex than it may initially let on. Plus bonus points for having one of the best choruses here. 'Here Today' is a cautionary tale with another incredible chorus. It brings back those waves of harmonies that just hit the listener seemingly at random. And then there's 'I Just Wasn't Made For These Times', a lyrical marvel here, one that I see myself in a bit too much. I mean, I'm probably not even one millionth of the genius that Brian Wilson was when he wrote this, but his lines about feeling like his mind just can't operate on the level or speed of the evolving world paint a picture that I find myself living inside of. He was clearly evolving in a much different direction than most people around him - a direction no one really understood.

Honestly, I called this the greatest pop album of all time, but there is a minor flaw with it - I never really cared for the instrumentals here. There are two of them, and while they don't ruin the album by any means, they're honestly pretty spacey, cool, and psychedelic (especially the title track), they were just never that memorable either. No one remembers Pet Sounds for the instrumentals. But everything else here is the closest thing to perfection that the human ear can fathom, and maybe animal ears too. I love love love Pet Sounds!

Some interesting acoustic arrangements here, but it felt very one-note by the time it was finished. The generally wayward and vibrato style of the vocals didn't grow tiresome, though; they complement the darker parts of this album quite well. I enjoyed this, but didn't get much out of it after my first listen.

Certainly an enjoyable record, but I didn't really understand how much I was actually enjoying it until the very end, that is, when the title track came around. I think the nuances in the instrumentation here are easy to miss underneath the general salsa sound the record aims for - it all went over my head. So I decided to listen to this album twice for that exact reason. And while I do think that closing title-track is the best song overall, some other highlights included 'Ojos' and 'Buscando Guayaba' - the former of which may be the catchiest thing on here.

A super lavish album, with some incredibly catchy moments laced throughout. And obviously, the salsa grooves all over this thing are irresistible.

Strange album, but I dug it. What starts as a macabre, dramatic, and aggressively depressing Americana and country album slowly transitions into a Latin-inspired jazz fest near the end, with some odd tracks in the mix here, especially 'Guero Canelo'. The opener, 'Sunken Waltz' was incredible, with an enigmatic yet easily digestible story driving the whole thing, and the following 'Quattro' was just as good. I love that reverby steel-pedal and that genuinely solid breakdown near the halfway mark. Everything that follows is a bit more hit-or-miss, especially since I wasn't too big a fan of the instrumental cuts here (say for maybe 'Pepita', which awoke a sense of longing within me that very few songs ever do). On the more "upbeat" side of this album, the tejano song 'Across the Wire' really stuck with me.

A super unique and quirky album. Yeah, it's all over the place, but in a mostly charming way.

I remember being pretty impartial towards this album back when I first heard it. With Monk and Rollins being such legends in their own right, I was maybe expecting something more adventurous. And I think I felt that way with the first track this time around as well; it felt scattered, and with no solid motif to hold the whole thing together, I caught my mind drifting throughout, sort of like that first listen all those years back. Luckily, what followed with much better than I remembered. 'Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are' has that strong motif I was looking for, and the Thelonious-piano presence is undeniable. 'Pannonica' is a bit more somber in its presentation, especially with that almost ominous celesta intro - I love the way Monk's rainy chords backdrop the sax solo in that first half. And honestly, the Monk exclusive 'I Surrender, Dear' was just as good; there's so much drama behind his wayward playing here - the sound of confused heartbreak.

A really fun Jazz album, one that I'm happy to have revisited. It has given me a newfound love and respect for this remarkable jazz pianist.

Glam-pop, I guess. Not quite glam-rock in the traditional sense...or maybe it is, but it certainly caters towards a more pop audience. That doesn't change the fact that it trumps many other albums in the genre. I'd say it's mainly due to just how tight the song structures and core melodies are. Russell Mael's falsetto driving almost every song here never got tired, and he's just great at writing these incredible, pillowy lead melodies - my favorites being the ones on 'Falling In Love with Myself Again' and the opener 'The Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us'. That 'Equator' chorus is gonna be stuck in my head for a while as well...I just know it. He's a comical guy, too, just dive into the twisted yearnings of a song like 'Thank God it's Not Christmas'. Or the blatantly ignorant remarks of 'Hasta Manana Monsieur' and the endless Einstein puns of 'Talent is An Asset'. These are unconventional song topics and lyrics; they kept me engaged. I'd say the vocals and lyrics were without a doubt the best part of this album, which is saying a lot. The backing music here is dramatic, just how I like it, and it sounds larger than life on many songs - I love the way the 60s-styled wall of sound swoops in on a song like 'Here in Heaven', or the way the cutesy piano line complements the vocals on 'Talent is An Asset'.

One of the better Glam Rock albums I've heard in a while. I appreciate just how humorous, sarcastic, and unserious it can be at times. And musically, it managed to keep me interested till the very end.