Reviews by mkw

Punk will never be my preferred genre of music, but this is more enjoyable than I thought it would be. A large part of that is having a (very) large number of short tracks, with quite a bit of variation in sound. That said it does get a bit samey - I think I would have been happier if there had been 30 tracks rather than 43.

No other band sounds like Smashing Pumpkins. Super distorted, very distinctive vocals. I prefer other albums, but this is very, very solid.

Oh you have to be joking.

This is just bad in every single sense. Since this was added to the list after the initial release, I assume something else was removed to make room for whatever this is?

Explicit content is only really worth listening to if there’s some kind of talent involved aswell, and there’s absolutely none to be found on this album. I absolutely hate this style of music, and I absolutely hate the vibe based non-singing.

The delivery is so sure of it self, and the beats are so smooth. A very angry dude, with opinions have maybe not aged all that well in all areas, but the album is an absolute classic, and for good reason.

Somehow I had forgotten about the skits between tracks. I was happier before rediscovering them.
There's clearly some great tracks here, but I don't think it's aged particularly well. The flow seems somehow stuck between oldschool and some newer more complex schemes, but I didn't enjoy coming back to this album.

This is such a colossal album. Nothing else sounds like Depeche Mode, and this has everything from moody tracks to beats that absolutely drill into your soul.

This is....fine.
I never heard of this band before listening to Porcupine, and I'll be hard pressed to remember them going forward. Not bad, not great, not memorable.

How do you even begin to review this?
I truly didn't like most of this in the way you would enjoy a pop or rock album, but that isn't the point. This is challenging, but at the same time wildly entertaining.
Once you get over the immediate shock, the pieces seem to fall into place, and a 2nd listen is much smoother than the first.

This is an amazing album. When it came out 18 year old me had never heard anything like it. The sound is distinctly theirs, but still clearly influenced be older bands. Every tracks seems to be one idea distilled down to the essence. There's no overly long tracks, or 10 minute solos, everything is just sharp and perfectly paced.

No thanks. This is just 80minutes of guitar wank. Really, really did not get into this.

I'm not American or British, so I have absolutely no idea who any of these people are. I fully accept that there might be some context that turn this into a masterpiece, but my impression while listening was mostly confusion.

I truly do not understand how an album like this made the list. The lyrics are subpar. There's no amazing musical ability on display. Who did this influence?
This did nothing to change my view on past albums, or my perception of future listens. It did not provide any insight into the evolution of anything.

So much talent, and so much wasted time. There are Rush tracks that I absolutely love, but this album is a few steps further than my taste.

I'm not a huge Queen fan, so I only knew one or two of these tracks before listening to the album. I'm not a bigger Queen fan now, but I enjoyed my time with Queen II.

My expectations were at ground level, but I still want my hour back.
Floaty non-music with pretentious slice-of-life lyrics of a bored clown. I absolutely hate his vocal style. The man can't sing for shit, but he can do pretend vocal flourishes that might have worked for someone with talent.

I'm not sure if I ever listened to this album end to end before. I should have.
"When will they shoot" is an incredibly intense opener to an album that is still relevant in most ways, and the album never really slows down.

Honestly this was a weaker front half of the album than I remembered. After Mystery of Chessboxing things truly kick off.

Surprisingly decent. I absolutely hate his vocal style, but honestly not a bad way to spend 40 minutes.

I hated this. Vibes and textures, but mostly noise. I don't get it at all.

If this isn't a 5 I don't know what would be.

It's not quite a 5, but it's pretty damned close.
After a week long streak of sad indie music and folk, this was so bright and sparkly. I absolutely loved it.