Reviews by mkw

Some great tracks, and some complete misses.
Minus 1 start for the 10 minutes of nonsense in going home

Extremely forgettable. Super polished, but also super uninteresting. I really prefer rap that has some hint of an edge, and there's none to be found here.

I did make it through, but I completely checked out during "Life is better", when I realized that the name dropping was really just a (maybe overly long) list of artists, I'd rather listen to than finish this album.

I really liked the first track, but everything after that turned into a blur of songs that I could not separate out, and that left no lasting impression of anything. Perfectly fine for background music, but don't expect to remember that you had it on.

This is the 2nd Steel Dan album I've had on this list. I loved the first one, so I had high hopes for this. I just don't get it. Nothing about this feels inspired or interesting. Fine as background music, but that's about it. Even Bernard Purdie sounds uninteresting on the 2 tracks he got - that's almost impressive.

Oh. Oh no.
I should like this. Tons of energy, basslines that are very forward in the mix. The vocals though. I just can't... I find it actively annoying. And why did one of the tracks have what sounded like a 10 year old with a xylophone?

Never listened to an album of sitar rock before. I'll do my best to not do it in the future.
2nd half of the album is much more interesting than the 1st.

Very generic 1980s sound and feel. Not great, not bad. Nothing really left any impression.

I really liked this.

Not sure how I would describe it, but it somehow felt heavier than it really was. Despite knowing basically nothing about this band, I have a sneaking suspicion that this would be your favorite bands favorite band - except if your favorite bands favorite band was Butthole Surfers who seems to overlap in both sound and timeframe.

The bonus tracks felt like a bit much.

I don't understand how this album made the list.
Every album so far - even the ones that absolutely were not my taste - has had some cohesion and creative vision. This is, a skillfully done, compilation of cover tracks.
Great vocals, good backing band, but still a collection of covers. Almost every track is available in more interesting versions.

He's kindda sad, right?

Great lyrics, great melodies, back when Cohen could actually sing. The album with Avalanche, Last year's man, Diamonds in the mine & Sing another song boys. This was always going to be an easy 5/5

This hit the sound that most electronic music went for in the 1990s. Some absolute bangers, and some truly weird stuff. Maybe slightly long.

The good songs are great, the less good songs are mostly fine. Different sounds to a lot of the albums on this list.

Albums like this is why I signed up in the first place. I know Steely Dan, and individual tracks by Steely Dan, but I've never sat down and listened to a complete album. I should have.
It likely helped that my first week of this 3+ year project has been generic 60s pop rock that did absolutely nothing for me. Listening to a band with some different takes was great.

I thought I liked The Who, but after sitting through this I'm less sure. Based on reputation, and my own imagination, I was expecting a rebellious hard hitting album. What I got was fairly boring pop rock. Not bad, but really not noteworthy either.

I find this album frustrating. Every track has a spark of something I would be extremely interested in listening to, but - with very few exceptions - no track ever really get there.

It's the Beatles. It sounds like the Beatles. I'm sure it's great if you enjoy listening to the Beatles. I don't enjoy listening to the Beatles.

This is an album where everything is “good enough”. Melodies are fine, production is fine, lyrics are mostly fine, and the album turns out to be fine and super generic. To me this album could have been made by hundreds of other 90s bands and I would be unable to tell the difference.

Play a backbeat and hit record.

No. Just no.
70s stereo with vocal in one ear. Sounds like a porn movie.