Reviews by ninexnineteen

This album wasn't really for me, even though it has a lot of the characteristics I normally am into. It's unlikely I'll return to it, but won't disparage it either

Non-enthusiastically ⭐⭐⭐

I think I really need to explore chamber pop as a genre. Every time one of the albums I have listened to here with that descriptor has been intriguing to me. This is no exception. There's just something about the melodrama and big feeling of the strings / orchestral instrumentation / divergence from verse-chorus-verse-bridge song structure I'm into, I think.

The last two tracks on this album bring it from a solid ⭐⭐⭐⭐ to ⭐⭐⭐.51. I hate doing fractional ratings that wind up the same as a full star, but such is the rating system here.

⭐⭐⭐.51

Just a guy and his acoustic guitar. Simple and excellent

Added to my personal collection

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Listening to this album make me feel like Janeane Garofalo's character in Cable Guy. Exasperated with these two guys and tired of her bullshit job, she just sighs and says "Dude, I got a lot of tables..." to get this whole thing moving so she can move on.

I don't even have a lot of tables this morning, but I'm ready to move on. This could have been a pretty solid instrumental album

I'm tapping out here at track 7. Is this guy genuine? Or is this some joke?
⭐⭐

This is such a fun album. Music that exists because people were having fun. I almost think they could kick it up a notch or two and still be alright.

While you're listening, I want you to remember to watch out for that piranha and try not to take shit so seriously

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Tarpit was pretty much torture to listen to. "Lose" was a close second. And Poledo. All three were skipped once I couldn't stand them anymore

Everything else has been "very Dinosaur Jr," which is to say if you've heard one of their songs, you've heard them all. And you're probably not clamoring to talk about how great the vocals are.

I can hear their influence in later music, but thus doesn't do much for me

⭐⭐.49

There's a fine line between "having a signature style" and "repeating the same formula," and I think this album falls on the wrong side of it. Additionally, cutting about 15 minutes AND the skits would have been better for my personal listening experience. I understand how they add to the "cinematic vision" Rae and RZA had, but even with those, I'm not getting "cinematic" from this at all.

For me, even if they took my (uneducated, non-artistic) suggestions, I still don't think this could have done better than three stars for me. Of the solo projects, I'm a Liquid Swords guy.

⭐⭐.51

I remember when this came out, singing "fingernails are pretty, fingernails are good" in a green Nissan Sentra, owned by my best friend's older brother. Big memories here.

There are a pretty good handful of tracks on this I don't remember at all. Floaty and For All the Cows are a couple of those, and that's unfortunate; I quite like them and could have been listening all along. I honestly don't think I have sat down with this album in its entirety since I was a teenager.

I never would have thought it back then, but some 30 years later, I'd be at a Foo Fighters show, listening to what I guess you'd call "our song" with my wife, trying to sing along with a huge lump in my throat and just crying instead. I get all emotional about music, and this moment was maybe the peak of that phenomenon. Who would have thought this album would lead to that? Great memories on this disc, and following albums...

Not sure what to say about this except I'll definitely be exploring this album and group further and adding this album to my personal collection

⭐⭐⭐.51?
⭐⭐⭐⭐?

Rock needs more organs and orchestral drama

⭐⭐⭐.51

This is my 4th Dylan album from the list, and I believe there are 7. This is better than most of the others. However, that's a low bar. And 72 minutes long? Ugh.

"She wrote me a letter
And it was so kind
She put down in writing
What was in her mind "

GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE. POET?!? HANG IT UP, BOB

I do like the bluesy stuff on the album: guitar licks, rhythm section, and the occasional Wurlitzer piano/organ. One the whole, it's not for me.

How I feel about this album: Watching my wife drink out of a fancy tumbler with an inch and half of amber liquid, I'm stricken by just how cool that looks. Whiskey tastes like gasoline to me, not "smoky, peaty, and with hints of oak" or whatever. It's fucking gross. I REALLY want to like it; I just don't. I feel like there must be something wrong with ME because so many people do like it. I wish I understood what people like about this whiskey. And Bob Dylan.

The handful of songs I liked brought this to ⭐⭐ from ⭐. There just wasn't enough for three

⭐⭐

This is the most generic shit I have ever heard. Reading some of the user reviews makes me wonder if we're listening to the same album. WTF are you all on about?

While I have actively HATED albums and artists on this list, this is the least deserving of a spot. I find this less offensive to listen to than those others, but they were SOMETHING. This is like listening to AI generated Music Brand™ music.

Michael Stipe, who's judgement I now question, said this was hands down the best album of 1993? Pearl Jam's vs came out that year, as did In Utero and Janet Jackson's janet. Achtung Baby and Eric Clapton's unplugged albums too. Sorry, but no.

Trash.
⭐

I like this every bit as much as I did when it came out. So much, even, that I would have sworn I was listening to it years before it actually came out. Seriously, why was I thinking this came out out in 94? Must have been the other KORN albums I was listening to at the time.

Anyway, hard, thrashy, angsty, fun bass guitar, and even the campy scatting have always just done it for me on this album. I haven't listened to this in probably 15 years, and I still know most of the lyrics and have the song order memorized. And I don't even like nu metal!

Really, my only criticism is it's about 15-20 minutes too long.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Some of the other reviews for this album refer to it as "wallpaper," which I find interesting. Sure, wallpaper can just fade into the background if you're not a details person. It can also transform a room and set the feeling of it altogether. And if you look close, wallpaper can have all kinds of interesting stuff going on within it. It also requires skill to pick out the right thing and install it. So, you can call it wallpaper as an insult if you want, but I'll call it the wallpaper that created the perfect mood in my room today.

I'll definitely add this to my personal collection, along with a couple other of his albums

⭐⭐⭐⭐

I have mostly always sort of been a Hole hater. Maybe not a "hater," per se, but certainly an avoider. You see, kids, in the pre-internet days, any salacious rumor you heard about pop culture or celebrities was absolutely true. And I heard Courtney Love was responsible for her husband's death, and he happened to be in my favorite band. Not only that, but she was accused of riding his coattails and therefore not a "real" musician (which I'm guessing because she's a woman). There were a couple songs of theirs on MTV I wouldn't change the channel on, and maybe secretly enjoyed.

It was something of a shock to me to see Hole has TWO albums on this list. Listening to their other one, I gave up all preconceived notions Courtney Love didn't count, wasn't a skilled musician, and decided she, in all likelihood, didn't kill Kurt. Also, I enjoyed the fuck out of that album. This one? Probably even better.

I wasted a lot of time not listening to good music because my 14 year old self would believe anything and apparently make up my mind and a part of my personality I didn't even know about until I was in my 40s.

Oh, the album! Um, the rhythm section! Wow! The bassist and drummer sound so locked in, and I LOVE the bass-forward mix. Courtney's vocals are incredible, great guitar riffs. Just melt-your-face off screaming grunge. I love it.

I don't think there's a song on the album not worth talking about.
Immediately started this again when it was over

There are two definitely distinct sides to this album! Both are good, and I'm not entirely convinced they do or don't belong together.

Man, I really don't know what the fuck is up with this album, but I'm really into it. This was 1975?!?

I made it to track 7. It's an Elvis Costello album, alright. I can't fucking believe there are six albums of his on the list.

This, realistically, was inoffensive but mediocre. It's just that he has a way of making pretty much every song sound the same, even when they're totally different. In my feeble past attempts at creating art and in my four decades of appreciation of art, I have always thought that perhaps the most difficult part of an artist's job is knowing how much is enough; knowing when to stop adding to the piece. Elvis Costello does not understand this, and is ABSOLUTELY UNDESERVING OF SIX ALBUMS YOU "MUST" LISTEN TO. This is the 3rd I have listened to, and I don't look forward to the others.

⭐⭐

This album has problems, chief among them the stereo mix. Godawful, terrible, no-good mixing. Secondly, very little coherence. Some songs on the A side, work well together and paint a picture of who this band probably is. Most of the songs on the B side are B side af and probably shouldn't have been recorded by anyone at all. Pretty miserable experience at times on the back half of this album.

I think the best I can do is ⭐⭐

This sounded too much like someone's idea of "let's capitalize on what the Beatles are doing" for me to care a lot for it. There are unique elements to it, but for me, they're too small to matter.

Inoffensive and not hard to listen to, but that's not enough for me.

⭐⭐.51

This wasn't objectionable to listen to. A little weird, and not something I'll ever be in the mood to listen to again, but I'm glad it's out there.

It's unfortunate that the Wikipedia article is so thin and I had to go on a scavenger hunt to find out the pretty interesting history of the music and composer.

⭐⭐.51