Reviews by ninevoltheart

I like a lot about this. Really solid lyrical themes about the past and nostalgia, and I love that I can hear the ways this album and band directly influenced so many later artists that I love. But there's a touch too much pop for me to really connect with this, and it has a lot of that 60s recording technique/sound that I just don't love (fuzzy vocals, everything sounds so sweet and feels so bouncy!). I think this could definitely grow on me to be more of a 4 eventually, though.

3.5 stars.

Love the concept. As someone who doesn't know much about jazz, I don't feel qualified to critique this is. I enjoyed it for the most part - some sections were a bit challenging, but I like a challenge. This is my first jazz album of the project, so I'd love to come back to it once I've heard more to see how my opinion changes.

3.5 stars.

Enjoyed this a lot. Not much stood out for me but it had great sounds, good beats, fun and energetic and good for working along to. Would happily listen again.

2.5 stars.

Smooth, goes down easy. Chill vibes, pretty harmonies. A bit long and the overall feeling isn't something I'm likely to come back to, but it's interesting and I'm glad I've heard it.

Kind of surprised by how much I like this. I'm not normally a fan of folk but this has a lot more emphasis on the 'rock' than the 'folk' of 'folk rock'.

There isn't much here that really stands out to me as particularly unique or exciting, but a lot of it is fun and has a cozy, comforting vibe. I really don't like the country slide sound on "Teach Your Children" and the more folk-oriented stuff in general didn't do anything for me. But songs like "Our House" go down easy and that seems to be the dominant sound on the album. Not bad!

Well, this certainly isn't my standard fare but the whole point of this project is to expand one's horizons, right? This is fun. Parts of it reminded me of the soundtrack to the Sims vacation expansion pack. Good vibes, great percussion, very cool vocals. A fun listen.

It's alright. Listenable, good beats. Love the flute parts. The original "Back to Life" is great - love how the vocals are the star and how it transitions perfectly into the next track. But overall, there's just not much of interest for me here.

3.5 stars.

Really loved this! I've never properly listened to Stevie Wonder before and didn't know much about him. This is absolutely not my usual genre but I loved how smooth and polished everything sound and how much range there was on the album. Some great songs, super enjoyable, would happily listen again!

I know literally nothing about jazz or samba or bossa nova but this feels pretty accessible. Chill vibes, feels like being in a fancy cocktail bar with no real worries. Interesting to learn a bit more about a genre I don't normally listen to. I love a good cozy saxophone and this has lots of that.

Three words to scare me: "double Beatles album."

Still don't like them. Sorry. Hate the production, the vocals, the lyrics, the meaningless songs. "Back in the USSR" is alright but it goes steeply downhill from there. The sheer whiplash between songs - there's no cohesion here whatsoever. So many inane novelty songs - how is this one of the most respected bands of all time? If there are any earnest songs on here (it's hard to tell), they're completely undermined by everything else. I'm always going to come to each Beatles album with an open mind thinking this could be the one, but this one absolutely is not.

I love Nick Cave and I know this about myself, so why don't I listen to his music more?

I love the energy, the slam poetry reading vibes of Cave's vocals, the unexpected lyrics. Each song has a totally different character, and the gospel elements work into different tracks in such wonderful ways to accent the emotion.

I find it difficult to give an album I'm only hearing for the first time 5 stars, but if this album isn't worth it, what will be?

Was really feeling a 4 on this one for the first few songs, but then it sort of lost me. The first few tracks are great - lots of depth and interesting textures, really great feelings, quite unique. And then everything just becomes pretty same-y after that .Not bad, just not htat interesting. Would happily put it on in the background for a chill evening or something though.

There are a lot of double albums I would defend to the death. There is absolutely no excuse for this one. Mostly just the same stuff again and again that sounds like scrapped Beatles songs - with the exception of the last quarter, which is just uninteresting, unoriginal jamming. Some of the classic Phil Spector production is cool, but overall this just did nothing for me.

Hate the vocals, hate the Gallaghers. I could probably dig to find some things about this album I don't hate but I don't want to - listening to the whole thing was bad enough. Whiny repetitive uninteresting songs with the most inane rhymes that never needed to be recorded. And how DARE they use a T.Rex riff for this rubbish!! Unforgivable.

3.5 stars.

I like the energy! Feels like being at a live blues show where everyone's just having a great time. That said, the songs just don't have enough of a distinct character from one another for me to feel like I really connect with anything in particular. A fun listen, though.

2.5 stars.

I mean it's fine. If you have to put on some background pop it'll do the job. No standouts here. Meh.

1.5 stars.

I like a lot of psychedelic stuff so I went into this expecting to like at least some aspects of it, but the vast majority of it just did nothing for me. It's cool that this album was groundbreaking in terms of live recording, and I get that the Grateful Dead's live shows were the main attraction rather than their studio recordings, so it was cool to get to listen to the 'real' experience. But so much of it was just so boring. I don't need a lot of structure in a song to be able to enjoy it, but I need *some*. And if we're just going to be jamming for 20 minutes, fine - but the jam needs to be interesting and exciting! The second half of this album was a bit better for me but as a whole, I can't say I particularly enjoyed it.

This album and MC5's Kick Out the Jams are the two 1969 albums that just blow me away every single time. I don't love every song on this, and there are a couple standouts ("21st Century Schizoid Man" and the title track) that I connect with way more than the rest. But it's still so cool to listen to this and be able to hear the way it's influenced so much music since then. I love hearing all the experimentation that was going on and trying to figure out what stuck and what didn't and why. A super fascinating album for me!

3.5 stars.

Really liked this, especially the opening and closing tracks - the middle ones were just okay. Not necessarily my usual type of music but it was a great listen with some sounds that really tickled my ears and I'd happily give it another spin.

Look... I've just never been a big Beatles fan, and I don't think that's ever likely to change. I can respect what this album accomplished and the influence it had, and there are tracks on here I really don't mind, but overall, it's just not for me. I really hate the Beatles' vocals - yes, all of them - and especially effects like the warped vocals on "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".

A lot of the experimentation/more unique stuff feels forced to me, like deliberately trying to be eccentric, and it just doesn't work for me. Also, it's all just so... bouncy? A lot of these songs feel too sickly sweet or overly innocent to me, as well. I don't know. I know that there are some Beatles songs that I don't mind, but they're not on this album. If I didn't know that this album was so famous and influential, I would hate it and never listen to it again without a second question. Idk. I just don't like it! Sorry!

Edit: I initially gave this 1.5 stars but after listening to some other stuff that wasn't even recognizable as music, I'm bumping it up to 2. I might not like these songs, but at leas tthey are recognizable as songs. Gotta leave room for scraping the bottom of thist list eventually!