Reviews by nevele

The selection of World Music in the 1001 list that I've gotten has been... lacklustre... to put it politely.
But luckily I now know that albums like this one have been included as well.

40 minutes of incredible funky, danceable and high tempo afrobeats and samba. Especially the second half of the album with Cavaleiro Do Cavala Imaculado as the final highlight have made a great impression.
Great album from, apparently, one of the icons of Brazilian music.

I will look into some more of his repertoire.

Is it possible to despise Morrissey, but still love The Smiths? The answer is: Yes Ofcourse

It's not an album I was Made To Love. Even though this album only clocks 28 minutes, every new song feels Just Too Much on whiteness and late 50's songwriting. Where the songs kept asking to Just Stick With Me, I couldn't help to Sigh, Cry, Almost Die with every note and harmony that was thrown my way.

Even side B - with mostly songs written Felice and Boudleaux Bryant - could not give me a Change Of Heart.
So How Come (No One Loves This Album)? The cover of Lucille tells the story. It's without power, without swagger. It's safe. It's plain-oatmeal-for-breakfast-music.
The earliest rendition of the Bryant classic Love Hurts can't save the album either.
So Baby, What Do You Want Me To Do?

1*

A great listen. Busy day, no story attached

Today, Missy Elliott's debut album is regarded as one of, arguably THE most important R&B and hip-hop albums by a female artist of the 1990s. Despite this, this album is far from flawless. Missy Elliott is still an intriguing character because she writes and—with Timbaland— produces her own songs. Furthermore she's talented in rapping and singing.

The song material on the other hand falls short in many ways, especially lyrically, even if you can already tell that the production was ahead of its time in terms of sound.

With those great trumpets and the well-crafted chorus, "Sock It 2 Me" is unquestionably the album's highlight. Although "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)" makes good use of that sample, the verses that surround it just don't sound right with the background track or the sample lines.

The laid-back vibe, along with a gorgeous guitar riff from Eddie Floyd's Check Me Out that plays throughout the song, makes a somewhat darker production like "Why You Hurt Me" appealing. But those stand out as the album's highlights.

Although it might possibly be a result of the album's lackluster song selection, there are a lot of guest appearances that don't add anything (read: nothing really).
It's also difficult to find anything good in songs like "They Don't Wanna Fuck With Me" because the lyrics are yet another example of how ridiculous they are.

A mixed album across the board; so three stars.

This was great rock album to listen to. Especially the opening and closing songs are flaming, but I'm quite taken by the stranger songs like Bitter-sweet.
Definitely an album that will stay in my playlists

It's been quite a listen for a lazy Sunday afternoon. I've seen the band live a few times because I have a friendgroup that sees the Butthole Surfers as genius.
I really don't mind them, but the feeling of 'weird because weird' always keeps persisting.

This was a great listen. I got to know REM in the early 90's, and have followed them ever since, but never really gotten into Murmer.
Glad I did a couple of listens, because it definitely is a grower of an album.

Great debut album from a great band

A very enjoyable experience. This is Elvis on his best

A quick note on this album, but I've been enjoying this a lot. And album filled with smart lyrics, great bass and just all-round good musc.
That's Entertainment might be one of the best pop songs ever written and the rest of the album is filled with great jams (pun not intended)

It seems after the first 200 or so albums in this endeavor I've learned that I'm a bigger fan of New Wave and post-punk than I imagined.

It's some really nice jazz with the African/Cuban influences, especially on the drums.
At times some relaxed jazz to have on in the background, other times uplifting jazz to dance to, but it never really gets special for me.

I appreciate the importance of this album in music history and am glad I listened to it a few times, but will likely never put it on again.

I don't know what it is with Elliott Smith and me. I understand why people have this in their favourite album lists, I understand why Elliott is regarded as a very talented songwriter.

It just never clicked for me. And have listened to the album 3 times over the last day. But it's all going past me.

In 1996 I heard Novocaine For The Soul and hurried that afternoon to my local record store to listen, and buy, the album. The album with its weird cover, parental advisory sticker and emotional, quirky indie-rock music became one of my most loved albums of that year.

And it has not lost any of its power over the years. The clever lyrics, the many beautiful tributes to his mentally ill sister, the wide array of techniques, samples, instrumentation and inspired production makes 'Beautiful Freak' one of the most interesting, and at times haunting, debut albums I've heard in my life.

The songs go between samply dreamy to guitar grungy and the tracklist makes it you're never bored by alternating between styles throughout.

And to think that this the prelude to Electro-Shock Blues, which might be even a better album.

A very relaxing and summary bossa-nova/samba album with a flair of jazz. The title of the albums covers what to expect.

But with the exception of the opening song, it never gets exciting, it never peaks. It's very decent, but it's a watered down version of authenticity.

It might not be my Tom Waits' best album, but it's one of my favourite listens.

It has everything Waits had up till this point.
The pumping bluesrock Waits like "Heartattack and Vine" and "Downtown".
The Jazzy Waits on a song like "In Shades."
Then it has the orchestrated balled Waits on songs like "Saving All My Love For You" and "On The Nickel." Songs so bordering on kitsch that you'll only allow Waits to make them.
And then there's the Waits best listened at night like "Ruby's Arms"

Is it his best? No. But it's an underrated uncut gem.

I've now listened to the album 4 times and I still don't know how I feel about it. It's got all the ingredients for me to enjoy it, but it has all gone past me very easily and nothing has stuck.

A few times my ears pricked up with interesting parts of the (long) songs, but overall it just failed to hold my attention.

Enjoyable listen, would never turn it off if it was playing somewhere, but not groundbreaking for me.

Whatever happened to Chicago if this is their first album?

I went into this listen with a bare minimum knowledge of the band, only some of their famous singles of later periods like If You Leave Me Now and Hard To Say I'm Sorry. Songs that are not inviting for a music lover to search deeper into a bands repertoire.

How wrong was I. Chicago Transit Authority is a great jazzy and soulful rock album with a copper wind section to boot. Lots of changes in tempo and styles, and some great musicians.

It's not a 5* album due to the absolutely terrible "Free For Guitar," and the way too standard "South California Purples"

But an amazing album for the rest. And I'll be listening to this again.

I really lost track of Rap / HipHop the last decade and a half because of the insane amount of absolute garbage that is being released in the genre. I'm glad I'm catching up on some excellent albums

The production on this album is superb.
And what I genuinely like about it is that besides a great flow, and excellent beats and melodies, the lyrics are actually the greatest strength on the album, much more than with a lot of his contemporaries.

The Art of Peer Pressure and Money Trees are great coming of age stories. Swimming Pools and Good Kid (with the fantastic Pharell beats) are superb. The only dissonant on this album I find the weak Backseat Freestyle and Compton.

I appreciated this for his great voice, the music history relevance, inventiveness and for the song "You're Good For Me"

But in the end all song are pretty much turning into a blur and after 3 listens, nothing really sticks, stands out or made really much impression

"Give the scum a gun and make the bugger fight. And be sure to have deserters shot on sight. If he dies we’ll send a medal to his wife.”