Reviews by nevele

What do you release after a landmark album like "It Takes A Nation Of Millions..."? You harness all that pent up anger and use it to create "Fear Of A Black Planet."
Highly political, powerful, clever and all members are at the top of their game. Hiphop with a message. A true classic in music history.

Beautiful melodies telling me terrible things

I know Fiona Apple from a few of her singles but mostly from 2020's absolute masterpiece "Fetch The Bolt Cutters."

Strangely enough I had never, until now, taken the time to listen to her debut album.

What Fiona Apple shows on this debut is astonishing maturity. An atmospheric melodic album with substance, and that for an 18 year old woman.

One of the qualities that sets Fiona Apple apart from other female singer-songwriters is her voice. From low and cool in the opener "Sleep to Dream" to darling sweet in the choruses of "Never is a Promise", it contributes to the dark, intimate almost poetic atmosphere that covers the entire album like a veil.

There is never any sweetness or tacky romance, instead she gives the listener a sometimes enlightening and sometimes frightening glimpse into her psyche. It's encouraging that she hasn't given up hope for love after a traumatic childhood experience ("but he washed me ashore and he took my pearl and left an empty shell of me") but it's a wry feeling to enjoy music with such a pain in it.

Because I know what's about to come afterwards, I know she'll grow even better in voice and especially instrumentation.

But this is a stunning debut.

4*

After a first listen I was really disappointed in the album. The first four songs were incredible, but the album fully dropped off after that.
During the second listen new songs like "Ready, Able" and "Cheerleader" popped out of the album.
A third listen it finally fully clicked as an entire album.

I knew Grizzly Bear from when this album came out and thought for all those years this was one of those boring new-folk albums that were popular in that era.

I'm glad to have been proven wrong. Really great.

4,5*

Rocketing straight into mediocrity

The slyly catchy "Wishing Well" alone proves that Terence Trent D'Arby, these days known as Sananda Maitreya, was the ambassador of soul at the time.
The album still sounds good today, despite the typical production cues of the 80s, such as the drum beat with echo and the keyboards on "If You All Get To Heaven", the album's opening track. The sultry "Sign Your Name" sounds modern still though and is one of the highlights.

He also shows remarkable singing talents on the a cappella "As Yet Untitled".

Later he would not be a musician so much as a personality with grandiose opinions on himself, which distracted from his work.
This multi-platinum and Grammy-winning album is a worthy memento of his considerable talent.

3,5*

Even though postpunk seems to be the music I am attracted to more than others, this album took a few listens before the penny dropped.

And when it did, it really did.

There's a rawness and sometimes a bit of brutality to the songs but still with a poppy edge to it.

Channeled energy that hardly ever goes to plain noise and shows how artful most of these songs are made. I enjoyed this a lot.

Even with Vixen being a pure ripoff of 'Run, Run, Run' by the Velvet Underground

This album impressed me. I knew Seven Seas and of course Killing Moon, but there were a lot more songs on here that captured a great atmospheric whole.

A surprisingly good album. Britpop avant la lettre and an almost perfect 90's alt-pop album.

Will re-visit!

I might've liked this in highschool, but even though the beats were really good in places, the humour got tiresome

After having found the original UK version; then onto to American version (with different songs); then falling in the rabbithole of why to listen to which version.
Finding out that the song order on the later US version is more to Jimi Hendrix' liking, but that he was pissed the Americans left his songs like "Red House", "Can You See Me" and "Remember" off, I just created my own playlist with all the songs of the original version, added the single's and put them onto the U.S. versions order.

And was a great 2 hours of dicking around with an incredible album.

So here we are:

"Puple Haze"
"Manic Depression"
"Hey Joe"
"Red House"
"Love Or Confusion"
"May This Be Love"
"I Don't Live Today"
"Can You See Me"
"The Wind Cries Mary"
"Fire"
"Third Stone From The Sun"
"Foxey Lady"
"Remember"
"Are You Experienced?"

Now, Jimi Hendrix has never released that 'perfect' album that some people have, but this one is as close as you're going to get to it.

4,5*

I did not think I would like this as much as I did. Only had time to listen to it twice, so will revisit

'Is That Enough' is an absolute great song, but for the rest it meanders a bit too much for me

I never know what to do with The Doors, I'll be honest. So many of my friends and other people I respect their musical tastes off see this as a landmark in musical history, even calling it the best debut album ever made.

But I must be really missing something that everyone else is hearing, because this never clicked with me. I know this album well, I enjoy listening to it, and it has some great moments on it (The organ solo in Light My Fire, and The End of course.)

But songs like 'Twentieth Century Fox' or 'Take It As It Comes' are just decent rock songs and I'll always nod my head up and down when I hear them in a pub or a party, but nothing more.

It's a 3,5* album and maybe some time in my life it'll click.

All Directions as an album seems a bit disappointing to me. It remains a collection of covers.
But then it has some nice highlights, especially 'Papa Was A Rollin' Stone' of course.

You can tell they're stuck in the 60's after all. Artists like Marvin Gaye or Curtis Mayfield moved on to soul and had become a bit more socially critical. That also shows a little bit on this album, but for the majority this remains popular Motown.
The music is beautiful and the harmony vocals of The Temptations are certainly good.

It feels like I'm playing the next installment of the Fallout franchise.

This is one of the best country albums I've heard and I'm certain there's a place, time and crowd for it.
It's just not here, now, and me.

This is my 246th album I must hear before I die, and already the 5th Elvis Costello one. Entire genres seem to have been overlooked thus far, but at this rate I'm guessing Costello's entire repertoire has made it onto the list.

Now, this might need some culling because not all of them really have the importance or musical need to be there, but at least keep this one on the list.
This might just be Elvis Costello's best.

Costello, who proves again he's a sort of mix between Graucho Marx and Woody Allen creates razor-sharp songs with rhythm, with a vibe and a sneer here and there. And that sneering clever anger in his lyrics is where his voice lends itself really well for.
It's an album that still sounds fresh, even though it's over 40 years old.

A really pleasant listen. Not a masterpiece, just good music

According to a lot of fans (and also the 1001-album-list) the best of Earth, Wind & Fire.
With delicious funky songs like "Shining Star" and "Yearnin', Learnin'", ballads like "That's the Way of the World" and "All About Love", and jazzy groove songs like "Africano," I can fully understand why this would be the case.
On the other hand there's also songs like "Reasons"; the disco ballads style with those abnormally high-pitched vocals, those sterile strings and horns.

All in all, a really funky and soulful album. It's just not fully the thing for me.

Absolutely incredible