Reviews by nevele

Obnoxious, sleazy, funny, dark, quirky and kitsch.

And a bonus-point for Sex Dwarf, the absolute highlight of this album.

It was a great listen again. The poppy grunge, the clever lyrics and some killer songs

While I enjoy some of their contemporaries like Genesis, Yes and Rush, I find it really hard to enjoy ELP.
Someone on this site called it prog-for-prog sake and I totally agree with that assessment.

Yes, they're amazing musicians, but a 20 minute song without start, finish or recurring theme to keep you hooked is just a miss. And side two of the LP didn't get better.

Noise, layers, ethereal. It's such an amazing album.

I don't think I need to explain much here about this album. It's an absolute influential masterpiece in world music history and Stevie Wonder's Magnum Opus,
Even though it's already his 18th(!) album, this has him playing, singing and writing at the peak of his creativity. Before it all crumbles apart and we go into the 80's.
Absolutely packed with masterpieces like Sir Duke, I Wish, Pastime Paradise and If It's Magic.

This album has the feeling like you're listening to a theatrical rendition of the stories being relayed. So many songs are heavily orchestrated, some are the intermezzo ballads before bringing you back to movement III.

And even though every song is vastly different than the rest and Rufus Wainwright is an incredible vocalist, plus the songs are all quality, this album certainly isn't for everyone.

The lamentations, with Rufus and a piano, are overly romantic, and many of the songs are just over-the-top orchestrated. And to be honest, a lot of the songs really aren't all that good, with notable exceptions.

Rufus Wainwright is clearly immensely talented, but for me, this album does not showcase that talent well.

Ah, one of the most famous albums of the 90's.

This album shows the Chili Peppers at their peak creative form and thanks to producer Rick Rubin as a cohesive and great sounding band.

But, clocking at 72 minutes, it's almost a double album and with it come double album problems. There are songs that feel like filler on this classic, and a small cull to make it 45 minutes might not have been misplaced.

This is like a best-off album of CCR, but to me, it's all the lesser hits. It misses the power and conviction of some of their earlier work. And I know I'm almost alone in this opinion, judging by the average votes

It's one of the albums out of R.E.M's incredible productive era, 6 albums in 6 years. And this one falls in between the other two great albums Life's Rich Pageant and Green.

But where the other two albums are a bit more stable in their quality, does Document have some of the best and worst songs of this period on them.

It starts incredibly strong with "Finest Worksong" and "Welcome To The Occupation". It goes down a bit with "Strange" and "Exhuming McCarthy" then picks up immensely with It's The End Of The World As We Know It," "The One I Love" and mostly "Fireplace."
Then "Lightning Hopkins" pushes the album down again.

It might not be a perfect album, but it's and album I will always listen to with a lot of pleasure.

4,5*

It's a funkadelic funkalicious funktastically funky Parliament album.

The Mothership came down and influenced thousands of artists in the years to come.

An interesting album by the Temptations. I read about this album being the transition album from Motown to the funk of later years. I would therefore expect that there would be a lot of songs with a combination of styles, but strangely enough the songs are either Motown or funk.

The funk, mainly on the A side, appeals to me a lot more than the Motown, especially on the B-side.
The cover of 'I Heard it Through the Grapevine' should not have been necessary and is quite poor.

All in all, I don't think this is a bad album at all, but for me it's not the masterpiece some people are talking about.

A double album of really 4 different themed sides.
I would guess that this would make the most sense on the LP's on which this was originally released.
If you felt like some bluegrass you'd put on Side 2, if you were in the mood for something heavier, you'd put on Side 4.

Which for me would mean I could skip a side because when this album goes from side 1's great latin-rock into the country on side 2, my mind starts wandering and i feel the need to start skipping songs. I recognize the quality of the songs, I hear the amazing songwriting and musicianship, but it's just not my style and will never be.
The folk on Side 3 and Bluesrock on Side 4 are once again more to my liking fortunately.

All in all is this an incredible album, with quality songs throughout and that's not something you see much on double-albums. This might in fact be one of the best double-albums of all time.

A proto-punk 70's album, somewhere between 1960's The Doors and 1980's Black Flag.

A good listen!

It's never been a love affair and it'll never become anything between S&G and myself.
You can hear on this album how Paul Simon is a gifted songwriter and lyricist. And while I appreciate his craft, these albums are just not for me.

On album 1 they started off folk.
Album 2 became a bit rockier
Album 3 (this one) is a bit more poetic,
Album 4 is a bit more psychedelic
Album 5 was a kitsch monstrosity.

I've had 4 of them now in this list. Hopefully this was the last one.

This is an album that will stay on high rotation for a while

It just isn't for me. It's good for the style and one of the Byrds' best works as far as I've heard

It is truly remarkable how many songs and lyrics can be remembered after 35 years.
I listened to this album on repeat when it came out; I was only 8 years old and a huge fan of Michael. And after all these years I was able to sing and/or hum along to every song except "Leave Me Alone", which I just discovered wasn't on the cassette (!) release.

Listening back now, I really recognize how my music taste and knowledge have changed over the years. Where as a little boy I thought the song "Bad" was by far the best of the album, it is now one of the lesser songs in my ears.

BAD is Michael Jackson who became a little less funky and a little more pop/rock. Now the poppy side is ok, but I'm actually more surprised how well his voice fits the more rocking tracks like "Dirty Diana", or the almost prince-esque track of "Speed ​​Demon". And these songs, along with "Man In The Mirror", are real highlights of the album.
Other songs that put a smile on my face are "Smooth Criminal" and "The Way You Make Me Feel"

But to put the nostalgia aside, this is certainly not a great album in every way. I find songs like "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" a listless trifle, "Just Good Friends?" almost instantly forgettable and "Another Part of Me" feels very strained and unnecessary on the album.

Ultimately, the album has more ups and downs, and - since he wrote 9 of the 11 songs himself - it shows that Jackson was a talented songwriter. But even though the album has been hugely influential on pop-music, I can't say it's great throughout.

The first song is a classic and I really gave the rest of the album several go's, but I can't remember a single note anymore. It's all quite forgettable

I didn't give this album the listening time it deserved. Only listened to it once during a car trip. Didn't mind it.

Aqualung is of course Jethro Tull's best-known album and is generally known and loved by rock fans (The titletrack and Locomotive Breath will still be heard anywhere, and you'll find them on rocklovers lists). It is indeed the best introductory album to Jethro Tull.

However, as I've been told by many of Tull fans, this is probably not their best work. That honor goes to the more progressive Thick As a Brick.

Still, Aqualung has enough highlights for a successful listen. The title track is magnificent and My God also remains Jethro Tull at their top.